An Honest Mistake
by redskywalker29
Summary: Undyne knew that Asgore had been worrying about something for the past few days. He even forgot to chastise her for breaking that ceremonial vase for crying out loud! Still, everything was going great. She'd be joining the guard soon, she'd confess to Alphys, and get the Underground their third soul. That was the plan, at least until Undyne found a pair of brats roaming the castle.
1. In Which There is a King

**The Captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne, postured and posed overhead the awestruck gazes of the knights, squires, and pages of the Underground's fighting force. Awestruck was an apt word, for Captain Undyne was the foremost knight of the realm. She lived as an excellent marksman with throwing spears, a particularly gifted individual in the art of shoving people into walls, and a hero that could boast of being a veteran of over a thousand battles.**

 **Once Undyne was ambushed by no less than three bloodthirsty humans, but by the end of their epic and anime-worthy battle, she was victoriously stained red from the roots of her admittedly already bright red hair down to the set of heavy armor that she easily wore. She stood stained in the unnatural blood of her enemies-**

* * *

An armored gauntlet slipped past Undyne's guard, slamming into her face. "Sorry about that, child, but it might help if you weren't daydreaming " The light pouring through the stained glass windows overhead the hall blinded Undyne's eyes for a second while she reoriented herself.

"Shut up, old man!"

Undyne shouted back and did her best to skewer old man Asgore with her spear. Asgore sidestepped the spear with the ease of a veteran of a thousand battles and moved in to strike with his trident. Unfortunately for him, Undyne was solidly in the camp of overkill and thus continued with the energy of her previous movement to thrust her spear into the wall and away from Asgore's range.

Using the wall as a springboard, she then swung herself around and manifested another spear in her hand using sheer force of will. Okay mostly magic, but sheer force of will sounded cooler.

Sadly, Asgore didn't use this time to stand around and was already three meters back and hiding behind the safety of his legendary fire magic. A massive wall of fire greeted Undyne who charged anyway. Her momentum generated enough force to sail through the fire and crash against Asgore's trident which was brought it up just in time.

Undyne's spear shattered, flinging her to the ground from the burst of energy.

"You know what, when I get something brokenly awesome like that for magic, everyone's going to get their butts kicked so hard," Undyne muttered into the floor. Stupid fire-wall making her burn up. Undyne forced to roll away to avoid a swipe from Asgore's trident who took advantage of the momentary lapse of action to close the distance.

Undyne moved out of Asgore's range and motioned to make another weapon out of sheer awesomeness, one with the striking power to finally knock the old man on his butt, but Asgore's trident disappeared with a flash. A smile sprouted underneath his bushy beard. "Well done, today."

Undyne scowled. "Give me five minutes more, and I'll knock you flat on your back!" Undyne made a fist and swung at the air.

Asgore kept that stupid grin and answered, "I hope you do, too! I'm rooting for you!"

Undyne scowled. "What's the deal anway? This was like half as much training as usual! You said you'd show me how to get in enclosed spaces!"

Hence them throwing around sharp objects in the carefully maintained halls of the castle. Real humans with their overwhelming desire to kill wouldn't care about broken objects, so neither would Undyne care for her six broken walls, eight shattered windows, and nine cracked vases she accidentally smashed during the course of the fierce and terrible battles.

Being a royal guard trainee had its advantages after all. Besides, Asgore was the kind of nerd that was too soft to say he didn't want monsters gifting him ceremonial vases or abstract pictures of squares. Undyne was doing the fuzzy pushover a big favor.

"You know from Gerson that my advisors have been advocating for a new Royal Scientist." Asgore shrugged as he adorned his massive purple cloak and readjusted the straps of his shining armor. After a moment, he waved his large hand and the remaining fires in the hallways quenched their thirst for arson. The castle halls went back to being the esteemed halls it was except maybe the giant gouges in the wall from Undyne trying to jump off them.

Asgore moved just a little faster than he would if he wasn't concerned. Undyne narrowed her eyes and peered past Asgore's distracting beard. "Bull. You're hiding something." She crossed her arms and stared daggers into old man Asgore.

"Of course I'm not…" Asgore was a decidedly bad liar because he chose that exact time to finagle with a cell phone right in front of Undyne. It wasn't subtle either because he was decisively bad with trying to use the piece of tec.

"Yes, you are hiding something. You've been dealing with the missing egghead for months now! There's something else isn't there?"

Asgore looked away from Undyne's glare. "No there isn't." The phone choose that exact moment to ring again. Asgore took one look and twitched in noticeable discomfort.

"Is too, old man," Undyne crossed her arms and stared.

"Well, look at the time. It's a beautiful day and all, but I really must go do umm King stuff!" King Asgore, lord of all he surveyed, strode off with a rapid pace certainly unrelated to Undyne's questions. Undyne grabbed Asgore's cloak in a desperate last attempt to get him to stay, but Asgore's massive build only caused Undyne to crash to the floor and be dragged a few feet before Undyne thought to let go.

Asgore didn't even notice that Undyne embarrassed herself like that…

"Don't expect me to drop this…" Undyne ranted as she picked herself up. She then went back to kicking the ground like the competent person she was.

Of course, Undyne wasn't going to let this go! Not when Alphys would always complain about how no one cared about the Royal scientist position! During one of their impromptu meetups in the junkyards, she spent the entire time ranting about how nothing was being done about the position. Of course, Undyne let her go on for hours because she was always so passionate and admittedly beautiful when she was ranting, but a side effect **(Other than staring at Alphys)** was that Undyne knew what she was talking about!

The whole bit about the advisors was complete and utter garbage. Undyne was going to get to the bottom of this! Right before Asgore left Undyne's sight though, he turned around. Undyne opened her mouth to complain, but paused when something in Asgore's eyes struck her. Quite literally his eyes because Asgore's eyes were glowing with blue and orange magic.

"Why don't you get some help for that wound? Give Alphys some company. I let her look through some notes and work at the doctor's old office space again. " Asgore called out.

For some reason, Undyne felt this was less a suggestion and almost an order. The King didn't elaborate either, leaving her sight immediately after giving that almost order. Undyne was nowhere near understanding what just happened.

Well if Alphys was here, she might as well check out the office that Asgore would sometimes allow interns or assistants, **(aka just Alphys)** to go 'd go for healing purposes and certainly not the several boxes of anime that Alphys brought in the last few times she spent an overnight digging through the notes of her old boss what's his name.

"You win this time old man…" Both in the literal sense of a fight but also her attempts and information gathering. Oh well, at least whatever the old man was worried about couldn't be that interesting. It was probably something about the upcoming ball the fancy nobles were throwing. Stupid nobles. Asgore would probably need to smooth their feathers, **(quite literally in one particular case. That birdbrain loved to complain).**

Whatever Asgore was doing, it couldn't be that bad.

Right?

* * *

Asgore strode fully armored with his resummoned trident grasped in his hand in an easy carry. His weapon stood ready to smite down his foes and the foes of his kingdom in service of its people. Once again, the king was called to the grim duty of betrayal and oath breaking. He needed to again betray any memory of his once happy family in favor of the greater good.

For the sake of his people, he would once again kill his heart.

Asgore stalled for a moment to listen out to expansive cavern's silence. The path he choose wasn't the shortest passage to and from the castle, but it did allow Asgore to the chance to see the smaller monsters along the way of life. He choose this path often enough to be acquainted with every rough stone sprinkled throughout the cavern to form the brittle path until the road transitioned to the smoother asphalt of the city. It was quite a gradual shift from the silence of the cavern to the chattering of his citizens eager to continue on their way, but one he'd grown to love.

The path sprawled throughout the city with many meandering ways as if it were a mighty river and each detour a tributary trickling out from the turmoiled origin. Asgore walked on the path daily and allowed the mighty river to pull him wherever it wished. With his feet as the raft and the flow of the river his guide, he let the course of the river determine how to see his rebuilding and expanding kingdom.

He could see the family of four green scaled dragons that built their home in a village years ago now prosper within a proud city. He could see the school children eagerly press forward against him and ask about ruling, about fighting, and whatever it was that the young would playact for the rest of the day in their pursuit of fun. The king's path allowed him to stop and smell the golden flowers he'd taken the time to plant along the way in honour of the fallen.

There were always too many flowers, but Asgore thought that the fallen would appreciate his kingdom being beautiful. They would appreciate giving their lives for something better. It was a little thing, then, for the king to plant another flower for each guard that gave their life. His capital was beautiful as a consequence, if you could call the long lines of blood-won golden flowers a sight worth the sacrifice.

There functions of the King's path were important in day to day use, but it was overall secondary to today's purpose. He didn't need to meet his old friend at the edge of New Home. He could have gone straight onto his oncoming crime, but he made an excuse anyhow.

The meandering path allowed him the chance to stall off one more execution.

"Are you sure, Gerson? Your message didn't say much. "

The King looked away from the flowerbeds blooming around the road and turned it to an elderly knight. Gerson's eyes blazed with an internal fire, jolly and fierce enough to convey all the strength his old and tired appearance would not. Gerson's impeaching gaze rose to meet the king's.

"I may be older than you by a long shot, but don't you youngsters be thinking that I've forgotten what a human looked like."

"Are you sure they were in my home?" Asgore clutched his trident with a stronger grip and repeated his sentence.

Gerson slowly nodded as the two strolled down their path like they had all the time in the world or as if this was just another chance for the two old friends to smell the flowers. Still, there was never a chance of a peaceful walk; Gerson's hammer dragged behind the massive knight. Each scrape and screech against the road sounded a death knell for whatever came against the magical hammer.

Each scrape sounded a death knell for Asgore's heart.

No other word was spoken between the two, but the silence was borne of the easy familiarity Asgore sought for in crisis like this. Instead, Asgore made due checking on the flowers along the path through the city. He made careful note of which ones needed to be watered, which ones weeded, and which ones were for his old friends.

Again, there were too many of those.

Gerson chimed in after a few minutes of walking. "Were you able to alert the guard captains? I heard they were on leave."

"Golly, isn't technology incredible my old friend?"

Gerson laughed at that, slapping his knee with a hand not carrying the hammer. Technology had taken a rather drastic turn in the years since his last royal scientist whats his name. Messaging across the Underground was something bizzare for Asgore, nevermind those things called…. computer games. He had a phone for emergencies… hence Gerson calling him. The turtle didn't take to the new devices just like Asgore, but the two could make do in times of crisis.

This was undoubtedly a crisis.

Asgore's smile fell. "The captains are checking the borders now. If this is a trap or distraction, they'll take care of it. If this is just another rumor, they'll make sure panic doesn't spread."

Asgore didn't have an army. That implied victory against the overwhelming odds against monsterkind. The guard was both the shield and hope of the underground. They'd posture and pose so brilliantly that they'd give hope to those who'd fall down. Aside from experienced warriors like Asgore and Gerson, the average human could tear through entire squads of soldiers, but the shield of the underground still existed.

Yet monsters still fell down.

Gerson blinked slow and exaggerated after Asgore's response, quietly in thought for a moment. "Ya know, a thought comes to mind. Do you think this is it? Send an assassin after you to send the rest of the kingdom in chaos?"

Asgore's eyes were drawn to a nearby home where a group of of fuzzy eared and stripe shirt wearing children were playing with a rubber ball. A tiny rabbit held the ball in front of their own court of like-minded and similar-aged children. When the kid was about to throw said ball, their eyes caught Asgore's. The ball was unceremoniously discarded to the ground as the child eagerly pointed out the king.

The court of little people turned to see Asgore standing in full armor and started cheering with all the depth of their inability to understand what an armored king meant. Their cheers were an empty cry because Asgore knew they wouldn't understand what he would be doing. There would be no cheers if they understood.

Asgore faced Gerson and nodded to the old man. "Undoubtedly."

Killing the king like this made a terrifying amount of sense. Asgore was a visible target, so his death would panic the populace. In addition, he could count on one hand the number of Royal knights with human kills. Asgore was the foremost warrior and king of the realm. He'd killed his fair share of humans during the war, even managing to almost snag a soul before one of the seven human mages shattered it with a burst of magic. Killing him would be a real coup.

Asgore was due judgement, but even if those imprisoners from above willed it, he wouldn't roll down and die. There would be no mercy for his own crimes, but he wouldn't answer to the call of an assassin's blade.

Like Gerson before him though, one last thought crossed Asgore's mind.

"Was it…?"

One last doubt lingered, and like a worm festered in his splintered, broken heart, Asgore knew it would grow and grow until his curiosity was slackened. Gerson paused in his trawl to look at Asgore, cocking his head to the side so he could stare at the hesitant king who had stopped his walk to stare at the elderly knight. Asgore let silence linger for a last bittersweet second. "Was it another child?"

Gerson's gaze cast downward, and Asgore's heart plummeted. "I only caught a glance of the human of it before high tailing out of there." Gerson offered lamely. "I couldn't see them well since I was a wee bit concerned with fetching my hammer You know… An assassin isn't likely to be a little brat. There's a chance..."

" There is nothing I would like to say more than I agree…" Asgore closed his eyes as if closing them would somehow stave off the crime he'd once again need to commit. "You know from the two humans before this one what a child can do."

And now Gerson was dragged into the mess again too, and all because something as casual as a social visit. His old friend needed to be forcibly dragged into the fray again if only to contact the king. Asgore turned to dismiss Gerson, but Gerson's eyes were just as stubbornly set as they'd been during the war with humanity. So be it.

Gerson's gaze softened. "I understand if it's an assassin," Gerson put an arm on the King's shoulder, "but hey, you don't need to- if it's just a child-"

Here it was. One more crime to commit. One more tragedy for the Underground. One crime like that which led his wife to deserting him. One more crime that spit on the memory of his honor. The third crime desecrating his fallen children despite being in their name. The third soul of a human for the king.

Asgore opened his eyes to reveal them burning with blue and orange fire.

"I will do what I must for my people."

* * *

Asgore's home was a modest abode for a king. For one, it only stood a single floor from the ground though the basement was impressive in scope. The home held the same number of rooms as any other modest citizen of the realm could brag about. Another issue for any sense of royalty was the lack of grandeur in the tiny home. No ostentatious chandeliers or suits of armor lined the walls. Walking up to Asgore's home felt like walking up to any old home. The only standout feature was the bed of yellow flowers lining the walls outside his home, and the mighty tree protruding from the path made from its fallen red leaves.

"Pretentious much, Fluffybuns?" Gerson, in that fundamentally good-natured way of his, grumbled. "Making the path with leaves fresh off that darned magical tree. You're acting like some terrible sorcerer king when everyone knows you're a big softy. At least, I reckon they know. I can't remember exactly… "

Gerson had no sense of propriety for the situation, being the other important reason Asgore asked the old knight to help him in the first place. Still, the nickname made Asgore wince in good humor despite the situation. Asgore's responding chuckle may not have been real, but it did serve to lighten the air just a little while Asgore opened the door of his home.

No assassin leapt out at him with knife in hand. No trap laid on Asgore's table. The staircase to the basement stood locked with his pair of padlocks he placed that morning. Most of the house was the way he left it this morning before his sedate walk to the castle and bureaucratic tasks involved in being King.

Most of the house. A light in the kitchen was lit, with Asgore knowing that he'd left no such light on that morning. Worse were the footsteps which sounded faintly against the polished floors. Asgore and Gerson stepped forward with their hands clutching their weapons. Asgore looked to Gerson and motioned towards the kitchen. In that moment, it was not Asgore and Gerson that stood ready to act. The king took point while his knight stood ready to support with a raised hammer.

The king felt the beating of his heart more than his curled hand's grip on the trident. He'd been in this situation once before. The difference between what came before and now, on the other hand, was the smell of blood and dust, grit and grime, and stench of decay that filled his nightmares. So it was that Asgore found himself away from his cheerful home but instead that last battle he seemed to dwell upon years later.

A screech rent the very air. It was the sound of screaming and weeping that shook his core. It was the sound of the wounded on both sides, but the crying and dead gazes seemed to stare so much more to him than any other soldier. It was the look of once friends striking down one another for some unknown cause. It was the look of resigned despair as his people looked to him at their defeat. It was the look of those who could never look again to their leader with bright eyes, now left in only the dull glare of the fallen. It was the look of those left to rebuild as, even years after, the isolation of the war took its toll. It was the look of a queen as she cursed and raged after their spark of hope faded. It was the look of war waged once again by the defiant glare of his guardsman against an invader.

And most striking to Asgore, It was the request of a child asking to go home. That was not an unfamiliar question to the king, for he once faced a question like that from another human. It was a question so similar to one he'd once reflected on for but a moment, but this second child's words were asking for something else.

A child once asked Asgore if they could never go back home again. They asked if they could stay with the King. Asgore's answer to that child… his child in all but blood and dust and soul … yes.

The victim's question to leave his kingdom, on the other hand, was a question that shook Asgore in what was left in his core. It was a question that came back to him after every execution or edict against a human. It was enough to make Asgore repent. To go upon his knees and cry out. Asgore would never do this. Asgore would never kill another child. He'd never kill a child when he called two his own. He'd never go back on the promise he made to his family.

For a man who once called another human his child, the act was inconceivable. But it was the duty of the King to keep his oath to the kingdom, and it was his trident which killed the second child to ever ask him for that kind of safety. A king's duty was to slay those who would threaten the safety of his citizens. A king must go above and beyond the stress and rigor of life.

The King crossed into the kitchen.

A quick word about the state of the King's kitchen:

The room was a reasonable size for a kitchen until the fact was considered that perhaps the king should have something filled with grandeur instead of paneled floors. This kitchen though, in keeping with the homey atmosphere of the rest of the household, kept things at a reasonably moderate quality of life.

There was an oven that was never used because the King could simply bake anything he wanted by abusing the power of his reddish orange hellfire. The kitchen sink was a piece of hardware often clogged with water or food because the King's hands were too large to reach in and undrain the apparatus. The King employed no servant to take away the trash bags filled with slips of paper holding recipes for food he'd try making then regret doing so. In short, his kitchen was reasonably well lived in and cozy.

There were odder appliances as well as the standard. There was a fully rigged electrical system for the lights. There was a refrigerator gifted years ago by the last Royal scientist after he was first nominated to the position for his work with developing the electricity coursing through most the home. Said fridge's door normally would never be thrown so precariously open to the elements, but the human child digging through the icebox was a certain oddity in the messy room.

The back of the green, striped, and entirely too small shirt made Asgore's vision swim. Another child. Why must it always be children? Asgore's sudden breath was louder than he hoped for the child cocked their ear to the side.

Asgore froze.

The human turned around and upon seeing Asgore, gave a tiny smile so hauntingly familiar that the king never noticed his trident crash against the floor.

"Morning Father. Where's the chocolate?"

Chara rubbed red eyes with sleepy vigor and yawned completely oblivious to the tempestuous feeling slowly swirling Asgores heart like some hurricane of emotion going through his core. Another yawn shook Chara's little frame. Chara waved hello to Gerson who stood right behind Asgore, entirely forgotten amidst Asgore's mental collapse. Gerson's usual jolly gaze seemed to burn to just a wisp of its normal flame.

Chara closed the fridge door and pointed to Asgore's armor and trident. "What's with the getup? If you're going out, you should wake up Asriel. He was hogging the blanket anyway." Chara and Asriel disappeared decades ago. Asgore's guilt must have finally made him snap. It was inconceivable. His children were dead and dusted long ago.

Asgore remained silent. Chara blinked the tiredness away from their eyes, and for the first time, a note of worry appeared in their next question. "Is something wrong?"

Asgore opened his mouth and closed it. Chara's hand was gripped around the hem of their sweater and their fingers twitched while waiting for Asgore's answer.

"Why wasn't Mother in bed?"

Finally a true sign of Asgore's own desperation filled Chara's question. The next question was a whisper sunk into the ground like the thought too impossible to conceive and needed to be buried. "Where's Mother?"

And so it was that Asgore found his voice. "You said Asriel is here…" Asgore's voice was dry. "Why don't we get him?" Asgore finally moved but only so that he may wrap his arms around his child to hold them close. That way, they wouldn't be able to see the tears crawling down his face.

Chara's own tentative grip around him told him his efforts were in vain.

* * *

 **I made a few changes to the surroundings that might suit the past. For example, New Home does not have a tree at the entrance, but since there is a space for one It wouldn't be too ridiculous to assume that the area just changed over time.**

 **Speaking of which...**

 **This story features a drastically younger and or AU Underground. I mean for crying out loud, Undyne has two eyes!**

 **Story should be 0/10 needs more eyepatches.**

 **Edit: With the addition of Deltarune to the timeline, Undyne with two eyes is apparently cannon.**


	2. In Which Mistakes Are Made

Undyne took a sudden breath when Alphys looked up from her spot on the scientist table filled with science notes about sciency things. "H- hey Undyne. Y-you know you don't have train so h-hard right?" Her yellow claw gestured towards Undyne's set of heat exhausting armor the knight had dumped off the moment she arrived, but Alphys' gaze on Undyne's roughed up body made clear the subject her words didn't truly address.

Undyne looked away from the accusation, instead focusing on the action figures posed in dramatic fashion on top the room's filing cabinets, desks and the occasional half-read comic about human history. Yes, the Mew Mew Kissy poseable action figure was certainly so much better than facing Alphys's blinking, trembling, yet still inexplicably potent glare. Undyne blamed her crush on Alphys, SHE MEANT HER FRIENDSHIP! Yes, her friendship with Alphys made the glare potent!

Totally.

While Alphys did make rather good points about self preservation, Undyne would rather face a human in single combat than get into an argument with Alphys. Even if Alphys was super cute when she was passionately telling Undyne to take care of herself...

Undyne looked away from Alphys' glare and instead focused on the mountains of books that lay scattered around Alphy's borrowed desk. Books all filled with tecnobabbly phrases and words that made no sense when spoken out loud. Undyne lifted the covers on one and squinted in an attempt to avoid dealing with her migraine or facing Alphys.

Undyne's migraine pounded anyway at the wall of gibberish where there should have been text. Undyne could read of course, that was easy enough. Undyne and Alphys would spend hours reading the coolest books on histories about giant swords equipped with lasers or checking out books about saving princesses trapped by lasers equipped with giant swords. This science stuff though? Made about as much sense as Old man Asgore's etiquette lessons.

"What's this even mean?" Undyne pointed to a long word in the book she didn't understand and which also conveniently let Undyne escape Alphys' earlier question. Alphys blinked like a cat being faced with, well, anyone attempting to talk to said cat. **(Look, Undyne wasn't that great with similes).** The intern looked at the passage Undyne was pointing at and leaned back up, smiling.

"O- hh, th- th- that's talking about the metaphysical presence of magic. You know how the humans don't have any magic? That's because the author theorizes their increased physical strength compensates for being magicless. The reason they're tougher and stronger than us is because their body structure-"

Undyne lost track at the word metaphysical. She didn't interrupt and instead bathed in the radiance Alphys put into her words when she wasn't so focused on her stutter. Her passion for the subject was part of the reason Undyne kept coming back to Alphys' research sessions. Too see her so involved, so passionate about something…

"Contrasting with the physical makeup of our bodies which is overall weaker- not that I think you're weak! You're super strong and cool and... still... dusting?"

Huh, so that was the pain ruining her unabashed stare at Alphys. Undyne shrugged then winced at a sharp pain above her eyes which reminded her that yes, while Alphys was pretty, perhaps she should be paying more attention to her injuries. That was why she originally came to crash Alphys' research session. It was certainly not for the atmosphere. The research office over at the castle was essentially another place to store royal reports and notes. It was not built for fun, even though Alphys tried to make it better by dragging amenities over for her overnights when she couldn't stomach researching whatever weird project she was working on.

Undyne twitched as another speck of pain shot through her head. Seeing Alphys' horrified expression, Undyne played it off like the amazing person she was. "It's uhhhh nothing! Yeah, just a scratch."

Smooth.

"It isn't!" Alphys was just a little louder than necessary. She blushed red when she realized that the echo of her words started bouncing across the compact and empty room. After a horrified moment, she shook her head. "Your cut could get worse and then deteriorate in condition."

"Relax! It was just a gauntlet." Undyne smiled to show she was fine. "Besides, it's not like Asgore put any real killing intent behind it. And, I was wearing armor!" She pointed over to her set of plate armor she'd taken off earlier because again, armor was hot. Even in the castle, armor was hot.

"Th- that doesn't count! You know that! You don't have headgear! N-not a helmet. N-nope. Not buying it." Alphys dug around in the clutter on top the desks for a moment, pushing science textbooks and comics to and fro while muttering up a storm. Alphys' hands shook as she started opening drawers and taking out various scraps of metal, examining them for a moment, before tossing them to the side. "I know I brought the prototype. Where could it be?"

Undyne leaned over Alphys' shoulder. "Isn't this that old guy's office though? I mean, I know you brought some stuff for overnights and all… Oh yeah!" Undyne's voice echoed in the room, but the sudden thought that came to her mind was worth shouting. "Weren't we going to finish that new anime?"

"Ye- yeah! I brought it in case you stopped by and… wanted… too..." Alphys' hand stilled on top of a textbook. Alphys swallowed "I mean- you didn't need to stop by because I know you're busy with the guard..." Her hands twitched. Undyne opened her mouth to respond, but as she went to speak, a trickle of dust worked its way into her throat. Gross! How did it even do that? It wasn't as if dust was a liquid like human's flesh-eating blood...

Alphys immediately shot into action, knocking over the book in her hand and grabbing something. "Take it!" Alphys thrust a metal contraption forward.

"Uhh… thanks?" Undyne tossed it around in her hands. It was a square looking metal shape with a bunch of buttons blinking random colors.

Alphys waited for a moment, looking directly at Undyne with wide, expectant eyes. Undyne looked at Alphy's hopeful gaze and slowly brought the square to her head to press against her injury. Nothing happened except Undyne feeling stupid.

Alphys' expression immediately fell. "I'm such an idiot. I forgot to tell you how it worked! Ummmm flood it with your magic!"

Squeezing the square which was just small enough to fit in her hands, Undyne focused her magic. To her surprise, extending the intent and hope needed to use magic flowed into the contraption far easier than it should have been. Undyne almost stopped when the square glowed green. Her migraine subsided immediately, but more noticeable was the faint green glow surrounding her.

"That's AWESOME! Is this green magic?"

Alphys chuckled nervously. "I- I was hoping to make a contraption which could channel magic and even use it. I was hoping the robo- I mean the new project I was working on could channel yellow soul magic as an attack. It didn't work. The power source was too unwieldy and the soul type changes based on the monster that charges it originally…"

"What are you talking about, this is awesome!" In itself, a device to channel magic could be potentially useful. The ones that existed were usually nonexistent through there was a strange artifact over in Waterfall that could sometimes do the job. Technology like this was often useful for younger monsters who couldn't form magic bullet patterns as easily as their peers, but getting the devices in the first place was hard. Undyne should know. She could never find one as a brat.

Now something that bugged Undyne to no end was her weird magic. It took her for forever to be able to form a bullet, but once she did, it was a bloody spear that was more physical than magic should have been. Now that was super cool and all, so Undyne had been perfectly fine whipping those attacks around like it was nothing. A part of her thought it was one of the reasons why old man Asgore worked one and one with her. His trident blended magic and physical power together too, but his was also a channeler.

The problem with Undyne's magic was it only formed spears. She didn't have any access to soul magic and even struggled with channeling magic that many monsters were able to use at will. What Undyne had wasn't bad by any means; Alphys admitted to being only able to cast a lightning bullet with extreme effort. But Undyne wanted to keep up with the guard! Asgore could form a trident similar enough to her spears, but she couldn't make fire or use blue and orange magic!

Practicing with magic channelers would be helpful, but each item worked in a different way. It was kind of the same reason why certain armors were less effective at protecting form magic. A tutu may be stronger than a ribbon per say. Magic channelers worked differently for each person, and for that reason any new form was more useful. The fact that this channeler worked with Undyne was even cooler.

"Alphys this is incredible!" Alphys was sooo smart and gorgeous...

Alphys's posture immediately dropped back to her nervous slouch. "I-I mean it was nothing. Just a silly little side project. It was easier than building the robot even if the energy consumption is too much for anything that didn't have a portable battery built in." She started playing with her hands, wringing them back and forth when she spoke.

Undyne grasped Alphys's shoulder, inwardly trembling but confidently saying, "I think this is super useful! Hey, why don't you try for the head science position?"

Alphys shook her head so fast that it looked like it would achieve terminal velocity. "Me? No. That can't happen. Still can't even finish that project for my friend. I don't know science, King Asgore would never…"

Undyne waved the square in front of Alphys' face. "Who cares how much energy it uses? You could show this to the king! Didn't you say we needed a new scientist?

"I can't' do that. It's not ready!" Alphys was babbling.

"Come on! You'd be like the doctor from the anime we were watching." Alphys in a lab coat would be so cool! When Undyne inevitably made it into the guard, the two could team up with the power of SCIENCE!

"By the way, when can we finish watching-"

"LET'S WATCH THAT SHOW NOW!" Alphys shouted out.

Well Undyne wasn't about to argue with Alphys on that idea...

* * *

Just as the credits began to roll, Undyne blinked.

"Wait a minute, ASGORE SET ME UP!"

Alphys started coughing from inhaled food at her outburst. Undyne went just a little red when she realized she'd almost knocked her completely over by jumping up from her chair..

"What's his deal anyway? He's hiding something!"

Asgore knew that Undyne would usually stay for a few hours whenever she and Alphys were together in order to watch history videos! Did he want her out of the way? Did he need her not bothering him for a few hours? Looking at his weird attitude, his actions painted the portrait of hiding something!

"The king?" Alphys shrugged as she cleared her throat. . "I don't know. I only saw him when he let me in the lab this morning when I asked to look for an old blueprint."

Undyne clenched a fist. "That sorry old wreck! He promise to help train me today then bailed! Again! I'll show him."

Alphys's eyes went upward and she twitched her nose as she thought. **(Undyne always thought that was adorable).** "Well he is the king…"

Undyne shook her head. "He lied to me about his advisors wanting him to select a new head scientist! Those old fogies have been bothering him this entire time, so why deal with it now?!" Swinging around her fists, she ended with a dramatic pose of a single outstretched finger to the air. "I'll get to the bottom of it!"

Alphys nodded. "Y-you know. It does sound strange, but…" She tilted her head in thought. "It might be personal."

"Uhhh?" Undyne eloquently responded.

Alphys perked up and dug around in her desk, moving aside the makeshift action figures and limited edition real issues of human comics. She pulled out a calendar and began flipping through it. "Let's see… Today's uhhh around the time after … oh." She muttered. "That's.. Umm. Oh."

Undyne looked over her shoulder when Alphys didn't respond. The calendar was filled with cute little drawings Alphys made whenever she was upset; thus the calendar was filled to the brim. An upcoming date was circled in red.

"Well shoot." She recognized today's date after the view stories Gerson would tell about Old man Asgore. This was the day before Asgore declared war. The day the king's children were killed and the queen disappeared.

The room was silent for a moment.

"Soooo. I mean, that's probably why, right?" Alphys chuckled with a nervous energy.

"Man, do I feel sorry." Undyne couldn't exactly plant her face into the wall after spending all her energy removing her migraine, but the sentiment remained. "He didn't give any sign."

Alphys shrugged. "I dunno. He- well, I mean, from what I saw… seemed kinda down up until a few days ago."

"He did?"

Alphys nodded. "You were busy training over by Waterfall with Gerson for the past few weeks. Even then, he's upset for the past few months. He's been moping about all dignified and-"

"Nah. Old man Asgore's always laughing when we're training. And dignified? He's a softy!"

Alphys opened her mouth. Then stopped mid word. Undyne motioned for her to continue. "Well… I mean. You and Asgore are close right?"

"Yeah, so what? He just knows how to spot talent!" Undyne posed dramatically, flexing her biceps to and fro with the added benefit of being able to show off to Alphys.

Alphys went inexplicably red for a moment, but she quickly shook herself out of it. "You and Asgore have been training a while though. Special training without any of the other recruits."

"Yeah. It's because I'm awesome!" Undyne shrugged.

"And he's been showing you all these cool fighting tricks right?"

"So what?"

"And he continually opens the palace for you to wander around in and train in."

"To better stimulate combat, right." Where was Alphys going with this anyway? This was pretty clear.

"And you were roughly the age the king's two children were when you started, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't see what this has to do with it."

Alphys looked at Undyne's eyes for a moment. Long enough for Undyne to realize how beautiful they were. Long enough to make the silence of the empty office room echo. Long enough for the situation to be awkward, and Alphys realize she'd been holding eye contact with someone. "I-I'll fill you in. Later! Yes later!"

Undyne just shrugged. Alphys was weird sometimes.

But still so amazing...

It was well and by nightfall when Undyne started making her way back. Shadows played against the sides of the walls along the path. Every so often, a dim lit candle would break up the darkness, but for the most part, the place was silent. Strolling about the castle grounds always felt weird. The entire empty place could give anyone chills. It wasn't even like Asgore used it that often. He had a smaller, cozier home for crashing. He only stayed at the palace when overextended meetings made the walk to his home unbearable. Since the royal advisors really didn't like sleeping here either, the whole place was practically a graveyard.

Spooky too. It was quite enough for-

"Where'd you go, Chara?"

Undyne blinked and perked her ear up. Strange, she could have sworn someone was talking. Whoever it was sounded like a young kid, like one of the punks from waterfall or even younger than those brats. Maybe the little guy was young enough for the start of an apprenticeship, but the palace shouldn't be filled with anyone save the patrolling royal guards and slumbering King **(On a couch of all things. Loser).**

The halls were only lit enough to see just one of the decorative armors lining the walls of the palace. Since tactically this put her at a disadvantage, Undyne crouched into her best sneak while still wearing weighted armor. Something wasn't right here, and Alphys was still working in the palace on some project. Overtired, overworked, and defenseless….

Not on Undyne's watch.

"Hey, quit playing around! Come out! You know the palace gets dark at night." The voice called out. None of the guards came running to investigate. Were there even guards in this section of the halls?

 _Crash_

Undyne flinched **(Did not! Lies!)** from the sound. Judging from the direction it came from, it was probably one of the expensive vases annoying nobles gifted the king whenever they wanted some reform or bill passed. If there was an intruder, it wasn't the most subtle one. Clearly whoever this would be thief was, subtlety was not their strong point. But that's okay, because Undyne was never big on subtlety either.

Undyne smirked and flexed her arms. Undyne's hand opened and shut already imagining the heft of a teal blue spear inside it. Carefully, **(for Undyne's standards)** , she crept closer to the origin of the noise. Of course, crept was pretty generous given the ruckus every armor-clad step she made, but it was far better than the thief at least.

Closer.

Closer.

Undyne made out a dim light emanating not from the wall features but from the center of the hall, so she quickly moved to the walls in an attempt to remain unseen. Candlelight illuminated a bit of the thief, an outlined shadow of a child, walking along the path.

"Where are you? You know what will happen if we get caught by Dad!" The candle began to shake with each word the shadowy figure called out when he passed. His worry made Undyne grin, but she remained stock still in the halls. Her armor, previously a hindrance, came to be a blessing because the intruder walked straight past what he assumed was another decorative item. Just another armor in the long line of suits in the halls.

The little guy was right to be worried. Justice was about to be served. Undyne could say something cool and scare that furry kid. The kid with bright white fur now tangled and dancing with shadow from the candle he held clutched in furry paws. The kid with what looked like the beginning of horns emerging from his head. The tiny brat that wore an ordinary green striped sweater that contrasted with the solid gold necklace around his neck. The kid that was undeniably a boss monster...

Wait, what?

Actually, you know what? Undyne wasn't about to question it. Who gave a damn about nobility? The kid was about to get his butt kicked! The palace was off limits for a reason, and Undyne didn't care about any special divine birthright sort of thing. Sure there were only a few boss monsters left and all of them being practically noble, but Undyne couldn't care less.

Time to scare this brat off...

"You know I'm not scared, right? Right?" The child called out one last ringing time. Undyne paused a moment before she revealed herself, so her progress was halted when another form stepped out of the shadows behind the boss monster. The shadowed individual stood at about the same height as the noble, but whoever it was stood threateningly behind the child.

The noble kid didn't notice the killing intent drifting through the hall and instead whimpered out, "I'm not scared, Chara…"

"You should be. You never know what lies in the dark… BOO!"

Then their arms went around the noble kid's neck. The kid bleated, dropping his candle to the floor and plunging the room into a grim darkness. Undyne's eyes widened as she watched a murder unfold before her very eyes.

"Alright brats! That's enough!" Undyne summoned one of her spears, and said spear cast its steel blue light across the hall to give an ominously lit but clearer view to the scene before the guard trainee.

The two strangers were grappling on the floor with flailing limbs, but the light gave them pause enough for Undyne to get a good look at their faces.

Undyne's heart froze.

The second was a human.

Undyne almost moved to skewer the invader while they were on the ground, but the noble child still stood too close to the human. What if she missed? Undyne scowled as she changed tactics.

"Get a load of this!" Undyne charged at the human shoulder first. Her shoulder, easily backed by the steel armor and strength training Undyne underwent, sent the human careening onto the floor.

Undyne threw her spear at the downed target, but the human rolled to the side onto its feet. It pulled itself up from the ground and pulled out a viciously curved knife.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Was that a twinge of confusion in the human's voice? A hint of pain? It didn't matter because Undyne summoned another spear.

"I'm hoping you lie still for me!"

But when she aimed to throw, something grabbed her shoulder and pulled.

"Chara!" The boss monster kid held onto Undyne's arm. Dang it! His weight threw off the aim of Undyne's spear. The human all too easily stepped aside the misthrown spear.

"Let go, brat!" Undyne tried to knock him off.

"Stop hitting them!" Was the brat crying as he gripped Undyne's arm? Undyne tried to pry off the child, but she was distracted by the human charging. Chara, was it?

The brat wrapped his arms around Undyne's right arm which happened to be her good throwing arm. "The hell you doing brat?" The human, Chara, was getting closer.

"Hold her still, Asriel!" Chara and thus the knife clutched in her hand came dangerously close to Undyne. **(But never pointed towards her. Undyne discovered too late).**

Undyne jumped back, but the kid clinging to her arm with all his might slowed Undyne's movement by just the deadliest fraction.

Traitor! Or the brat was being forced to work with Chara. Seeing no other choice than being stabbed by the human's weapon, Undyne swung her arm around with all her might and with the movement, sent the noble flying straight into the human.

The two collided into a heap of flailing limbs.

"Guards! Guards!"

The conversation Undyne overheard before she attempted to stop the invaders took a darker turn. Chara must have been part of an advance guard. Perhaps they were a scout for the human force. Taking out the defenseless king while he slept would be a certain victory for their evil foe.

The boss monster was obviously being threatened to help out. A tactician would retreat to take a better approach to fighting. Humans were stronger and faster than monsters. A rational approach would be to fall back to get reinforcements. Humans were dangerous enough to kill entire groups of knights. The wise thing would be to retreat. The rational thing would be to fall back.

The boss monster would be left behind.

The brat who might be a traitor trying to get Undyne killed.

Was it worth risking her life for a traitor? When she should be defending who mattered? When she could be warning Alphys? When she could get the king.

The traitor… no the child would need to be left behind.

And that was something no true Royal guardswoman would ever do.

"The king!" Undyne charged with spears forming around her. There was a pounding in her heart. She'd stop them here. She'd be a hero. She'd felt it in her, the drive to keep everyone safe. There was a shaking in her soul. She felt stronger. She was strong enough for this. She was determined enough for this!

The invading human pulled themselves out of the tangle of limbs on the ground to see a storm of spears surrounding Undyne floating through sheer power of necessity. Undyne, with all her might, moved to throw them straight into the invader. The swarm of blue spears hurled towards the human.

Keyword swarm.

There were too many spears, and the boss monster would be right in the line of tried to stop them, but the previous energy refused to fade and aimed to strike the kid and everything else in the hall.

But instead of moving, instead of taking any sort of cover, Chara grabbed the boss monster's shoulders and moved to shield him with a tiny, **(ever so small in retrospect)** , body,

"ENOUGH!"

A blast of crimson fire blasted away the spears sending them away, and Undyne lost her vision as her energy faded to nothing. Now this was not the first time that Undyne's ferocity and willingness to never give up led to her body being to keep up with her spirit. Hell, she used to fall apart all the time because she'd push it too far.

But never in a situation like this. Humans, brats, and why was the king here? Nothing made any sense! The energy loss must be getting to her. She overdid it. Everything was blurry.

Nothing made any sense!

Was the room moving? Suits of armor seemed to dance around her fading vision, with Undyne's last sight being the King clutching two children in his arms.


	3. In Which There is a Confused Fish

Chara held up their arms up and in front of them in order to see the new bandages catch against the room's orangish light. The cool floating fireballs Asgore conjured for their makeshift hospital warmed Chara to the core. They were a reminder because he usually set up those harmless fireballs whenever Chara got hurt. It was as if their father was standing right next to his child to offer a comforting word or by sheer presence burn away the cold shame of injury and sorrow. His unnecessary but welcomed thoughtfulness was just like the monster.

Chara didn't deserve it.

Still, here he'd been all the same. Chara poked the gaudish, rainbow coloring of the bandages. Asriel insisted that getting the bandage with the rainbow color would help Chara recover faster because, in his opinion, having more colors would help them feel better. Chara would much rather have blood red bandages just like their injured arms, being in the opinion that Asriel's logic was supremely one of an idiot. The only problem was that their brother's hopeful expression was just too much like that of a puppy for Chara to kick. Asriel was a puppy. A tiny, stupidly naive, but still easy to offend puppy.

Stupid puppy. Rainbow bandage it was.

"Well would you look at that! Seems like old age hasn't dulled all my senses now would it? You can hardly tell I was the one doing the job of linen wrangler!"

Gerson avoided grabbing Chara's shoulder with his hands, and as a consequence, didn't startle the kid with close contact. He decided to compromise by setting a massive hammer right on the rickety cot next to Chara. Chara grabbed the hammer pommel with both hands and tried to lift it up to smash in some heads, but despite all Chara's force, only succeeded in inching it upwards. Chara tried to lift it with all of their might, but the darn thing barely moved an inch no matter how much strength they hammered into it. **(Chara would need to offend Asriel with that terrible pun later. Serves him right for hating wordplay).**

Shame the weapon was too heavy for the child. Hammers were really cool. Not as great as Chara's gardening knife but definitely fierce enough to do the job of hitting things hard. Gerson, while Chara was fiddling with the handle of the hammer and pretending to be a knight in fearsome armor, sat himself down right next to Chara in a slow and methodical way.

It was helpful and obviously on purpose that he moved so slow; the tiny sliver of Chara needing to move, to run, to hide in the corner and cry was stifled in the face of Gerson's careful tact and care. Gerson was really good at avoiding bad memories. He brought to mind an image of an elder grandfather sitting and feeding pigeons in the park. He was like the the kind of ancient beings that used to tell stories to Chara instead of the usual case of adults wishing that Chara would jump off a bridge or three. Gerson's gradual moves were always made with the utmost care and steady determination.

Chara's brother had no such tact.

"Chara, you're okay!" He came running into the room and almost slammed into Chara, but he instead compromised at the last minute by throwing his feet out and halting his momentum by wrapping them in a tight hug.

"CHARA! You were bleeding, and it was scary and you were about to get hurt and you're awake now…"

Asriel's sudden movements still made Chara's heart twinge a little in fear, but at least Chara had been long resigned to Asriel's strange habit of refusing to hate all forms of physical contact **(Crybaby weirdo).** Chara, in full knowledge of their own hypocrisy, still leaned into the hug just a little. Asriel again reminded Chara of something like a cat or a puppy, and therefore one of the few things they would allow to get near if not currently bruised, beaten, and bandaged up.

Which they were now, now that Chara thought about it…

"Still…. Bleeding."

The words were muffled by Asriel's green sweater, but his eyes widened anyway as he shoved Chara away and began widely gesturing with his hands in the course of repeating "Sorry, sorry sorry sorry-" The entire situation was punctuated by the sound of heavy snoring as right next to Chara, Gerson had the audacity to nod off in sleep. Chara poked him. Gerson shifted but didn't wake up.

Chara remained straight faced, looked Asriel in the eyes, and held up a single finger. "Cease mortal!"

They waited for one dramatic moment filled with Asriel's blinking eyes and the occasional snore before continuing. "Your regret at the harm of your beloved sibling compels you to give up your chocolate." Chara threw both hands out before Asriel in a display of power , careful to not wince when both arms started to twinge in mild pain.

Asriel ceased the movements that aided in his numerous apologies **(groveling for forgiveness BWHAHAHAHAHA. Ha. Ha ).** Chara paused for a few seconds whilst an entire parade of emotions flashed across his face. Asriel crossed his arms, his lips pursed in a not entirely serious frown.

"You already took my chocolate!" He stuck out his tongue to blow a raspberry like the dignified royalty he was.

"Heresy! Wait a minute…" Chara frowned. They did eat it all didn't they? Chocolate was good when they were upset, so Chara tended to devour it whenever a coping mechanism was needed that wasn't self-hatred.

Their father sitting down with the two of them, being clearly upset judging by the fact that the strong mountain of a monster was actually crying yet still stubbornly refusing to explain anything to the children, could be construed as stressful. Chara was certainly bothered enough to eat all the chocolate left.

"Hggh shshshshsh" Gerson snored on.

Chara wondered if all old people could sleep on command. Seemed like a useful skill. Maybe it was a secret art passed down generation to generation by the oldest of said generations. Gerson probably taught Mr. Dad how to sleep on couches and instantly snore like that. Speaking of-

"Where's Mr. Dad?"

Their father went through all the trouble of moving them from the hallways all the way to the laboratory. He even set up a bed and lit a floating fire to warm the cold room for the patients while they were being helped by Gerson and some new nervous doctor person hanging around.

Considering the past day consisted of Asgore refusing to leave them alone after talking to Chara in the kitchen and waking Asriel up from bed, disappearing without warning seemed just a little stange. Asgore even ended up skipping a meeting with his advisors which was weird in itself. Usually Toriel took care of those seeing as she was the one born to the throne and could handle long meetings. But Asgore wouldn't answer any questions about her...

Asriel shrugged at Chara's question. 'I think he was going to go check on… ummm… the…" He stalled, not in the way he would if he didn't know the answer and wanted to appear otherwise, but in the way that showed Chara that he was trying to avoid a subject. Chara really needed to teach him how to lie better. How else would their secret plan go on...

Huh.

Their head started aching which was annoying because Chara thought the line of questioning was onto something important. Something about flowers? Weird. Chara could have sworn they didn't have a headache before this.

"I'm sure King Fluffybuns has that little punk handled." Gerson snorted and shook himself awake almost too easily. A sudden doubt filled Chara's mind. What if the secret to old people's sleep was faking it? What if old people were watching the entire time! WHAT IF-

At least Gerson answered Chara's question in the process of raising several others. "What's with the knight who tried to hurt Asriel?" Chara crossed both arms across their stomach in indignation.

Gerson laughed. "I'm sure Undyne's being scolded by the old codger." Gerson slowly and deliberately winked at the two. "I'm sure she'll be regretting starting fights after all her Kitchen duty."

Asriel giggled a little bit, and Chara gave a tiny smile, but something seemed a little off. Gerson at least seemed well acquainted with that knight, but Chara had never heard of her before. More than that, what knight attacked not only the king's adopted child **(relatable as Chara would gladly fight themselves too)** , but the king's real child? **(Unforgivable)**.

Something seemed off, and that angry knight tied straight into the whole debacle. Why was everyone acting so weird? Their father was tight lipped and even Gerson wouldn't answer their questions about Mother…

Or why they couldn't go outside anymore...

Or the sudden reason why they couldn't talk to the guard…

Whatever the reason, Chara and Asriel would get to the bottom of it together. Through thick or thin, or sneaking out under the cover of the night, the two would uncover their secrets! That or find chocolate. Had Chara mentioned that they wanted chocolate?

* * *

Undyne could have sworn she was doing something important, but her head hurt more than the time she'd tried to headbutt a wall into submission for what she said was for the glory of the guard but actually just a dare. A part of Undyne hoped that the boss monster brat didn't get hurt when she lost control of those spears-

Wait

One

Minute...

"DIE!"

Undyne's hand shot forward and flexed into the handle of a spear ready to stab anything and everything in front of her. Undyne lying on a rough bed in the warm and cluttered laboratory instead of the floor in the palace hallways only meant that she need jump forward to gain speed for a crippling strike. The knight leapt up and aimed towards the flicker of movement in the corner of her eyes-

"FOR THE KING!" Undyne thrusted with her spear in a vicious lunge that made Alphys drop the tray she'd been carrying.

The silver platter clanged against the ground and dropped the mess of half-made sandwiches against the laboratory floors. Alphys fell onto her back with a shout and stumble that went coincidentally away from the reach of Undyne's blueish spear.

"Alphys! Shi- Da-I mean uhhhhhh, sorry?"

Why was Alphys there? Where was Undyne anyway? What was going on? Undyne nearly took her head off, and gawds that was embarrassing . What if Alphys didn't think Undyne was cool anymore? What if she hated her? Alphys might think that Undyne was an idiot that attacked anything that moved. Undyne was an idiot! Stupid, stupid, stupid…

Meanwhile, Alphys was still lying on the ground. "I'm - I'm fine Undyne! Help me up, I mean if you want to help me up that is. I'd understand if you didn't want to waste time..." She was crawling up, but Undyne quickly moved to grab her arm.

This unintentionally made Undyne move close enough to realize that she could count each and every one of Alphys's adorable freckles and slowly observe each time she twitched her nose in that cute manner she did when nervous or stressed. And there Undyne was. Right next to Alphys. The super passionate girl that she may or may not have a crush on.

And Undyne tried to take her head off with a spear.

Undyne was so screwed...

"Howdy!"

Undyne whipped her head up so fast that she failed to recognize that they'd been staring into each other's eyes for the past minute. Asgore stood cross armed and smiling as Undyne finished embarrassing herself by helping Alphys up. As Undyne grabbed Alphys's hands to pull her up, **(without sweating or awkwardly grabbing them, no sir. Not Undyne),** Undyne's eye roamed to the strained way the King stood. The old King seemed jolly enough but his posture and the way he'd gaze at the two showed even Undyne that something was up.

Wait.

He was there earlier.

With the kids.

With the murderer!

"Where's the little-" Undyne trailed off when Alphys all too subtly, namely by gesturing wildly with moving hands, motioned for Undyne to stop. Undyne wisely kept her mouth shut and rephrased the question in a polite, respectful way.

"Where's the brats?"

Asgore nodded in the way he'd usually humor Undyne's barrage of questions. He acted as though the whole situation with midnight human invasions was just some big lesson for Undyne to learn! Undyne, smell the flowers. Undyne, dress in the suit for last year's royal ball. Undyne, don't tell the bloated old lady that she's fat even if she's been harping on and on about how successful her diet of Tem flakes has been.

"They're lying down in the hallway opposite of us. Gerson's keeping an eye on them." Asgore nodded.

He said nothing else. He certainly didn't address the big elephant in the room. Like for instance, the stupid human roaming around potentially blackmailing and or working with a little traitor. Naturally, Asgore wasn't addressing that major issue due to his inherent softness. He probably thought that the human was a lost cat or something like that. It was practically Undyne's duty to show Asgore the error of his ways in a kind and respectful manner.

"ARE YOU INSANE?"

Alphys tripped, crashing against the desk and thus ruining the rest of Undyne's sentence. The fact that there was nothing to trip over might have been a little suspicious if Undyne wasn't too busy diving to catch her amidst the sudden tornado of scattered papers, broken pencils, and torn textbooks.

"Hey." Undyne held Alphys in her arms. Alphys's nose twitched at their close proximity while Undyne went red thanks to her riveting choice of dialogue. They were close again. Undyne could move just so and kiss her...

"Well, I'm glad that no one was harmed young Alphys. In this or any endeavor!" Were Asgore's eyes sparkling at the image of Alphys dramatically swooning in Undyne's arms? **(To be fair, Undyne's were probably doing the same).** Whatever the reason, his remark shook Undyne out of her daydream.

Undyne helped Alphys stand on her own two feet but something struck her about the whole situation. "Hold on a minute. What are you doing here anyway? You said you were going to go home after an hour or two! It's-"

Undyne glanced over to Asgore who shrugged. "Around early morning I believe."

"Early morning! I can't have been out that long!"

Was Alphys not sleeping again? Well Alphys said she slept enough, but Undyne could tell whenever Alphys was on her last legs. This time, Alphys looked far past that point.

"Uhhhh. I was uh- was working on…" Stammering, Alphys looked to and fro for something on the desks.

Moving towards the table, Undyne noticed a bunch of fancy blue papers with a design of … wait was that a robot?

"Is that your channeler? You made it into a robot!" Undyne grabbed the blueprints with a blooming smile on her face. "Is this what you are working on? I want one!" Oh man, this thing looked awesome. Undyne didn't know that it was possible to build robots, but this seemed cool enough to be part of the one anime Alphys showed her a week ago! The design looked like a larger version of her channeler. Undyne noticed a name scribbled onto it...

Huh, Mettaton? Sounded nerdy like some Math-a-tron, but the robot was still soooo cool!

"Oh, uhh that wasn't what I was working on..." Alphys stammered out.

She froze when Asgore walked up behind her and grabbed the blueprints from Undyne's hands. "What a remarkable design. Does it work?"

"Uhhhhhhh" Alphys eloquently responded in return. Undyne nodded her head up and down in support, but Alphys didn't elaborate. Perhaps close contact with the ruling sovereign was making her revert back to her standard stammer, but Undyne honestly couldn't tell what the big deal was. She talked to the king all the time!

Asgore tore his eyes from the blueprints. His eyes landed squarely on Alphys's as he asked in his best grandfather voice, "Would this explain the reports I've been receiving about a metal box moving around in Waterfall?"

"Wait, you made it?" Oh man, that was incredible.

Alphys paled, but she mustered enough strength to nod. "Umm. it wasn't ready for showing yet. There were power issues I needed to solve and the current schematic neglected to account for…"

Alphys trailed off when Asgore took a slow breath, closing his eyes in thought. "Would you be able to show me the contraption?"

"I mean." Her hands folded into one another's grip and out like a needle through thread. "I need to ask him if he's fine with it-"

"Him?" Undyne tapped Alphys's tense shoulder which caused her to flinch for a moment before they settled in her familiar haunched arch.

Alphys turned her attention to Undyne. "Oh… Um the robot! He's been busy adjusting. Dealing with unforeseen problems with the ummm personality matrix I installed! Yes, umm that complex-" She trailed off. "Umm. Yes. He hasn't picked a name yet…"

Alphys gaze was on the floor instead of reaching Undyne's eyes. Undyne, using her vast social skills, decided to stop pressing the issue. Alphys was shaking just a little bit more than usual.

Asgore pointed to the blueprints, in particular a line of text more akin to gibberish to Undyne. "Is what you say here true?"

Alphys looked at said blueprints after Asgore's words. She nodded once, opening her mouth but slamming it shut after a few seconds revealed not a single word was coming out. Asgore strode on regardless. "If I gave you access to a more secure powersource and actual metal instead of the scraps you've been using, would you be able to build a war machine?"

Undyne swallowed. Her throat dried a little bit up but her grin grew. What did Alphys keep saying about work keeping her up all night? No wonder if she was making super fighting robots! Could they combine to make bigger robots? Did they transform into vehicles? Alphys was so smart and passionate and gorgeous...

"Yeah Alphys! You could put a laser gun and wait a minute…" Undyne grinned with shark like teeth when she recalled last night's movie night.

Alphys's movie nights were always full of cool things like having a princess fight using sentient battleaxes, and Alphys was fond of talking about the details of the numerous shows she watched. One particular conversation from last night stuck out. "Weren't you talking about making a super magic cannon like from the show? Was that for your robot?"

So cool...

"It won't work!"

Undyne shut up, but the only sign that Asgore gave showing he heard the outburst was to clasp both hands together in front of him. Alphys took a deep breath which caused her trembling limbs to pause a little bit.

"It wouldn't work. The design wouldn't function without-" Alphys shook her head. A series of emotions crossed her face when she began to mumble out, "I- I- mean… if I could have access to the equipment and supplies, I could maybe fix the power issues, but I need an industrial strength battery-"

"The head of science and magic would certainly have that access."Asgore stated it as a matter of fact.

Undyne blinked, Her shark-tooth grin grew just a little wider when she caught wind of what the old man was saying. Oh man, this was happening.

Alphys, despite so pale that she'd make a good ghost cosplay, still managed to speak up a little. "You don't mean you want me to..."

One weighted movement later let Asgore hand the blueprints over to Alphys, in the process creating the image of Alphys's small hands being superimposed by Asgore's massive grip. Alphys was a shrub in comparison to the mountain yet the King's eyes didn't budge from their steady gaze.

"If it would help you finish your device and convert it to a war machine, I'll gladly help in any way necessary. Dr. Alphys."

"But- I- uh-"

Anything else she was going to say was covered up when Undyne, forgetting herself, hugged Alphys. "You did it! You know what this means! I told you were smart enough for the job and-" At that moment, Undyne realized that-

One: She was hugging Alphys

Two: She was in close contact with Alphys

Three: She was hugging Alphys

Undyne may or may not have accidentally shove Alphys away. Just a little. Barely enough for Alphys' own inability to coordinate her movements to kick in and cause her to fall, thus forcing Undyne to dive to catch her, miss, and crash against the floor as well.

Smooth.

Asgore had the audacity to collapse in laughter, but the sound of his boisterous chuckling wasn't unwelcome. Alphys and Undyne eventually joined in with good humor, and the previous tension disappeared into the mist like the explanation for the strange human kid.

Speaking of which, Undyne completely forgot about why she'd been injured. "What about the human next door?" Alphys's eyes widened, but Asgore just let his chuckling die down enough to speak to Undyne.

"What about my child?"

"EXCUSE ME-"

It was at that moment the door outside chose to break down from the weight and spread relentlessly tumbling the two eavesdropping children. After a raucous fight filled with screeching and the desperate tumbling of limbs, a familiar human shoved a furry boss monster out of the way, sat up, and grinned with all the awkwardness of getting their hand caught in the cookie jar but none of the regret save getting caught.

"Ummmm. Asriel made me do it?"

"Did not!"

Well, even if they were a human, Undyne could admire their lifestyle.

* * *

 **Yeah, Undyne right now is one confused fish.**


	4. In which Undyne says too much

"I'm uhh- sorry for earlier?"

For some reason, Chara didn't think Undyne was telling the truth. In fact, the fish called Undyne

didn't exactly sound sorry. She kept clenching her hands in a fist like she was about to punch Chara in the face. Not that Chara could fault Undyne since the human often wanted to punch themself too.

Asriel, meanwhile, was doing his best to give Undyne the stink eye and didn't care a lick for being subtle about it. That attracted some sidelined gazes from Undyne, but Asriel kept scowling in his adorably ineffective manner that couldn't scare even a butterfly. Good for him though! Chara had been trying to get Asriel to have a bit of backbone for a long time. Looks like the flower wasn't an entirely useless-

Huh. Migraine. Those kept coming up. Chara didn't even like grain, preferring chocolate far more.

Undyne certainly didn't relax after the apology. When Undyne wasn't busy shooting these hopelessly lovestruck glances at Alphys, the scientist lady working at the laboratory's work table, she kept staring at Chara in a manner that might have been awe if her gaze had been just a little softer or kinder. It was like she expected the human to snap and kill everyone.

Which was totally unfair because Chara only killed people on the inside through sheer presence!

Asgore certainly didn't notice the tension in the room, but then again, he'd been busy for hours after Chara and Asriel's plan of eavesdropping on their father failed so spectacularly. He didn't even scold them for their antics! He just walked in the other room to talk to Undyne and Alphys while Gerson "babysat" by taking a nap in front of the door so they couldn't escape. Even now, Asgore just kept up his doofus smile and continued talking in the corner with Gerson.

Luckily for Chara's new evil plan, Asgore looked distracted. He wasn't the only one either. Gerson and Asgore weren't budging from the corner, and the scientist lady, Alphys, hadn't looked up from her scribbling pen for the past six minutes even with Undyne awkwardly staring at her in the meantime. **(What a loser. Chara shipped it).**

Earlier, during the time in which Asgore left to probably scold Undyne, Asriel and Chara were kept busy with their new plan. It was the perfect plan! They just needed to secretly ask Undyne to fill them in on where Mrs. Queen Mom was since Asgore and Gerson kept changing the subject.

Chara shot Asriel a look, who responded by grabbing their arm and closing in enough to whisper. Chara let him get closer because they were like spies in this way of inconspicuously whispering. In fact, Chara was pretty sure that some of those textbooks that Alphys was currently using as paperweights resembled more comics than science textbooks. There was one with a spy on it! Maybe Alphys was making spy inventions. Spies were cool, and right now Asriel and Chara were spies. That's how it worked.

Chara snapped to get Asriel's attentions and pointed with their spare hand to Undyne. "Here's our chance to question her! Go, Operation Bloodfish!"

Asriel snorted, then flinched when he realized it came out louder than expected. Still, he must have screwed up his courage despite that social blunder because he whined out, "I thought we were calling it hyper- ultra demon op?"

Chara shook their head at Asriel's stupidity. Poor foolish Asriel. "That's a dumb name. How about Hyper Blood Fish?"'

"What's with you and blood? Let's use Ultra shock plan!"

"Hyper Infernal Blazing?"

Asriel opened his mouth. Then he closed it and shrugged. "That sounds cool." His smile widened. "Wait, we should add that to the god of hyperdeath's- "

Chara cut off the name stealing meanie. "You already have a cool lightning attack! The demon should get the infernal blazing! That's the point! It's supposed to be tragic because the demon used to be suffering in this hellish overworld-"

"What's a hell?"

Chara shrugged because they actually never sat still enough to learn about why hell was so bad. This kind of religious stuff had always been hard to understand, and Chara couldn't exactly rely on Asriel to know things about human idea-o-logic-y **(hard word to say. Took Chara forever to learn).** That would be admitting weakness though, so improvisation was needed. "Hell is someplace bad I think. It doesn't matter. " Their voice got louder. "Hyper Infernal Blazing is a super finishing move! You get all the cool ones!"

"That's because I'm good at making them up!" Chara let him have that point. It was true. At least he didn't inherit Mr. Dad's sense of naming except maybe for that time as the flower but even then was up to debate…

Or at least Chara thought. Their head still hurt...

At that moment, Chara noticed the piercing stare leveled at their secret huddle. Chara looked up from their planning. Undyne stared directly into Chara's eyes with a hard glare that didn't so much as blink when Chara's eyes met it.

"What do you think Undyne's problem is?" Chara whispered.

Asriel's eyes wandered over to meet Undyne's angry gaze. "I've never seen her around before, but Dad seems to trust her. What's that idiot's problem?" Asriel's voice raised to a higher pitch to mock Undyne in that last sentence

"I think it's because she's an angry fish."

Asriel snorted. Undyne finally broke her gaze but only because Chara had said that loud enough for her to hear. Asgore was still tucked into the corner talking to Gerson, and Miss Alphys had moved on to using a fancy calculator thing and muttering numbers underneath her breath. No one was paying attention. Well, except Undyne who was hopping mad.

Wait a minute.

"Look at her! She's looks like she's a fish out of water!"

Undyne shot Chara a glare since her sentence just happened to be loud enough for even Alphys to look up from her notes . In response to said glare, Chara turned their head and **gRiNnEd**.

Asriel flinched… then burst into nervous giggles. "What's with the scary face?"

"A better plan emerges."

Chara looked directly into Undyne's eyes with wide eyes filled with sick glee. Undyne didn't flinch at the stretched eyes that shifted from their dull rust to midnight black color, and she didn't even remark on the misshapen jaw. So Chara's adversary was one of stout courage. But for how long?

And so the fish jokes began…

* * *

Undyne stood as tall as the pillar next to her in the castle hallways. It probably wasn't the best place for secret monologues, but it certainly made a dramatic touch for Asgore's secret speech that he still wouldn't deliver. Alphys twitched next to her, a fact that Undyne only noticed because she was standing close enough for Undyne to reach over and hug her COMPLETELY PLATONICALLY! Yes, that was what she meant!

Now Undyne was still confused, but Asgore wouldn't answer any of Undyne's or Alphys' questions until the brats were cleaned up and safely in a room with an actual door. Brats that were apparently his kids.

"So, aren't both your kids dead?"

Okay, even Undyne winced at that awful intro, but there really wasn't beating around the bush. Most monsters grew up with the story of the prince and his best friend in order to cement their willingness to avenge them for the whole war on humanity that was going on. Undyne didn't even have proper parents, and she knew what went on all those years ago!

Asgore just remained silent.

" I mean, I wouldn't put it like that, but you didn't explain things when you brought the two into the lab." Alphys chimed in.

Undyne shrugged her shoulders. "Seems pretty confusing. Oh, like one minute you're doing science and the next? BAM sudden human invasion!" She punched the air to illustrate her point.

Alphys nodded her head. 'I was ummm a little confused and nervous when the king came. I was busy trying to figure out how to read the shorthand of the previous Royal Scientists! What even was he thinking, I mean, who can read Wing Ding?"

"You wouldn't think, but golly was Wing Ding pretty common back on the surface. I remember trying to buy Sunflower seeds from this friendly neighborhood spider. I asked for petunias instead!" Asgore chuckled, but in a way that was forced. "The doctor always-"

"Get to the point!" Undyne crossed her arms, scowling at the king's attempt to derail the conversation."We don't have all day!"

Asgore closed his eyes for a moment like the world weighed too heavily on them. "Today was a lovely morning."

"And?" Okay, so sue Undyne for impatience, but was that supposed to be an explanation?

Asgore sighed. "I heard a story about a human waiting in New Home," Asgore's downcast head painted a sorry picture for the rest of the story. "I wanted to take a look myself. I told the guard captains to remain silent to avoid panic, and I may have distracted certain monsters so they would not visit."

Undyne tried not to look to awkward in front of Alphys because that last comment was pointedly directed at her.

Asgore continued. "The human in question happened to be the result of a two part miracle. Chara led me to my son who was sleeping in a bed not used for years. My son asked if I was in armor to go out and play. He asked me if I planned to go out and play catch with him."

Undyne nodded because wearing armor to catch actually made sense. Catch was exciting and all, but it was probably more fun if you happen to be fireproof. Undyne's memories of catch with the king involved a lot more dodging fireballs for training rather than having fun. The prince made a perfectly logical assumption, but that still didn't explain why he was here in the first place.

"So um…" Alphys gulped, "How, umm are they here? I've umm read about humans who could use magic, but I don't think that counts in this situation."

Asgore shook his head. "I do not know. They don't recall what happened in the past. They referenced an event right before Chara became sick." Asgore paused for a second and when he did speak, his words were choked. "I … do not know how to face this."

Undyne shrugged at that. It seemed pretty simple. Have someone with a fancy science degree, aka Alphys, take a look at the children to make sure the brats weren't ghosts. Humans could come back as ghosts right? One did in that human history about children's card games. The prince must have tagged along since he absorbed Chara's soul.

"It can't be that bad."

Asgore shook his head. "I lost the two of them before. Should I tell them that in return, I took the lives of two other humans?"

Oh, well that might be a problem. Undyne was pretty sure that the king's son made it a point of not killing any humans, and the human brat might take offense to declaring war on humanity.

Asgore ran his hands together like he did whenever he was nervous. "I… need time to think. I would like to have some tea now. I would ask if you were to keep them in the dark for now."

"Why?" Keeping the truth from the kids would just end up with them getting hurt. Undyne wasn't about to keep up a charade that would end up being broken the moment Chara stepped outside the castle.

"One day, that's all."

Undyne sighed and nodded her head. As much as it pained her, one whole day wouldn't change much. Okay, maybe it bothered her more than she'd let it on to Asgore, but who could blame Undyne? Humans were dangerous. Sure, the stories said that the prince's best friend was part of the good sort, but who carried a knife around when sneaking out of the house? Honestly, Undyne didn't think it was a mistake to keep both eyes on the brat.

Alphys, who'd also been quiet in thought, raised her hand like they were in a classroom. Not that Undyne would know because she usually skipped out on school days, being forced by guard members to be dragged back.

"Yes, Alphys?"

Alphys took a breath. "Is… umm I don't know how to say this… Are we still fighting the war? Is that why you want the war machine?"

Asgore didn't respond. Undyne could tell that in all likelihood, he probably didn't know the answer. Undyne could tell him a few things about war, keeping morale up by gaining souls to break the barrier, and dealing with creatures that could kill dozens of monsters, but Asgore probably didn't want to hear about that.

Whatever. Undyne could handle keeping her mouth shut just this once. Hopefully, once she oh-so reluctantly apologized for trying to kill the children, she wouldn't need to handle dealing with either of the brats. What sane people would purposely harass someone who tried to kill them?

* * *

"Look Azzie, I'm just saying Undyne can't be that dumb. Fish go to schools you know." Chara winked at Undyne whose clenched fists seemed to get clenched tighter each pun.

Turns out that Undyne's nerves must have been made of steel because the only auditory reaction that Chara was getting came from Asriel for the crime of making terrible puns. Sure, the clenched fists and death glares were getting pretty intense, but not one sound came from Undyne. **(Meanwhile Undyne was trying hard not to break. Trying really, really hard).**

"Chara, that was terrible. I know you can make better puns," Asriel groaned because he was a morally weak crybaby.

Chara stuck a tongue out at Asriel who responded in return. That, of course, necessitated retaliation in the form of playful shoving, so Chara and Asriel almost completely forgot about harassing Undyne in the midsts of being able to bicker about something like all best friends should.

"Thank you for waiting so patiently my children. Why don't we go back home before the morning rush starts. I can make tea and breakfast..." Asgore finally came out of the corner from his talk with Gerson, who apparently decided to get up and leave. "Undyne, thank you for waiting so long. Do you mind keeping Alphys some company just a little longer? Just until I get these two home."

Undyne didn't look too terribly put out that she needed to spend even more time staring at Alphys. Chara actually stopped fighting with Asriel in order to chuckle at the two. Alphys was returning said longing glances now instead of working on those blueprint things. They were cute together.

Still, Chara was trying to get information. "That reminds me! Mr. Dad, have you heard the one about the fisherman?" That last set-up finally did the job because Undyne broke and broke hard.

"Alright that's enough! I'm sick and tired of dancing around the issue. I'm not an idiot! I know you brats are fishing for information!" Undyne roared out. Undyne practically shook with anger, and the whole situation of provoking the dangerous knight for information looked like it would backfire spectacularly.

Well it might have...

"Oh my god. You said fishing!" Chara burst into inappropriately timed laughter. "No. Go on. Aren't you planning to fin- ish your thought?"

"Stop it Chara!" Asriel pushed lightly against their shoulder. Asriel was still grinning even as he complained because the sight of Undyne's rage completely disappearing in the face of complete confusion made the puns all worthwhile. She looked like she wanted to suplex something, but there were no rocks available nearby...

Chara huffed, rolling exasperated eyes at their brother. 'Let minnow if you can think of a better one."

Was a vein twitching involuntarily above Undyne's eyes? Oh gosh it was. Chara silently pointed it out to Asriel who the human could tell was trying to evaluate whether his hatred of puns was more than his unexplained dislike for the big angry fish.

Asriel swallowed. "I bet… I bet my puns would be of a higher scale though it looks like Undyne knows something about scales."

He stumbled midesentence at his betrayal of all morals. Chara slowly put a hand on Asriel's shoulder in a rare show of support that had him recover his courage. "Hey nice job with that, I know you're practically floundering on dry land with this,"

Undyne's eye was twitching enough that Chara almost burst into helpless laughter.

"Oh, are we punning. Umm…." Asgore stumbled mid sentence. "Let's see, Undyne you are… a fish?"

Okay, that did send Chara into helpless laughter that almost knocked them to the floor, only being saved at the last moment by an equally laughing Asriel who threw out his arm to save them both. Asgore smiled so wholeheartedly that Chara didn't have the heart to tell him the real reason why they were laughing.

"Screw it! Asgore tell them!"

"That's not a nice word." Asriel whimpered so absurdly pathetic that Chara needed to shove their face into his sweater to keep the laughs from getting worse. Asriel should well know how to say worse words by now.

Undyne looked furious. Her hands were trembling with rage, but honestly, Chara couldn't care. "You know, you're lucky. Mrs. Mom never lets us say words like that."

"What's next, will you pretend that the queen came back too, Asgore?"

Chara froze. It was like the whole room suddenly became submerged under water. Like a blanket had been thrown onto the laugher for daring to exist and needed to be throttled like all bad children should be for daring to have anything bright in their life. Asgore's smile disappeared and for a moment, even Undyne looked taken aback from what she said. Alphys, long forgotten in the corner, moved to put a hand on Undyne's shoulder before she put it back to her side without making the attempt. She looked as lost as Undyne did.

These outside things were easy to notice because it meant that Chara didn't need to address any of their own inner struggles. Asriel was fidgeting in place next to Chara and probably just as reluctant to breach the subject.

Asriel took the plunge though, bless the goat-child. "Where's Mom?"

"Toriel is…." Asgore began, but something caught in his throat because he only stared at Chara and Asriel like they were ghosts.

"Where's Mrs. Mom?" Something in Chara's expression made Undyne twinge. Chara swallowed when instead of a biting comment like she expected, Undyne knelt down so that Chara was eye level.

'I don't like you on principal. Nothing personal kid." Information like that was easy for Chara to swallow; they were distracted with the bigger picture here. Undyne continued, "Asgore, though? He should know is everyone's hopes and dreams he's talking about. He can't ignore everyone's hearts here."

Chara had a bad feeling about this...

"I'm sorry, my children, Undyne is right. I just… i wanted some time to think of how to explain things." Asgore move closer to the two children. "I'll explain everything."

Alphys squeaked out, "A-are you sure?" She was now trembling next to Undyne and for some reason, Chara didn't think it was because of her obvious crush. **(Too bad it wasn't the crush, they were cute together).**

Asgore moved slowly and held his hand out as if to put it on Chara's shoulder, which after all things being said and done, Chara would have allowed. Asgore was Mr. Dad. That was fine. But Asgore paused just a moment right before and drew his hand back carefully. Chara couldn't quiet read the expression on his face.

"I fear this is not a happy tale, but perhaps I've been treating this wrong. It's like… going to the dentist. Best to get this out at once." That bad feeling that Chara was talking about earlier? Oh yeah, it was growing.

"Get out what?" Asriel was bouncing on his feet and his hands were swinging back and forth.

Asgore looked over to Undyne and Alphys, who were silent. He looked back at Chara. "The two of you were best friends. You were the future of humans and monsters." Asgore choked up. He took a breath and continued. "One day though, Chara became sick."

There was a beat of silence. In that silence, a dozen expressions seemed to go across Asgore's face. Asriel's hands slowed to a crawl until they wormed their way into Chara's so that the two were holding hands, but that didn't stop the feeling of dread building up.

"We could not find out what it was, but you became worse and worse. Your last request… was to see the flowers of the surface world one last time. When your mother and I were talking to the doctor for one last ditch effort, you … passed on".

Chara hoped that Asriel didn't look as guilty as Chara felt. That odd suspicion from earlier suddenly became a whole lot clearer. Chara squeezed Asriel's hand back because Asgore wouldn't joke about something like this.

Yeah, Asgore wouldn't joke about this even if it was funny. They were still in the Underground after all, and that could only mean so many things about the results of poisoning themselves. Ha. Hehehe...

"Asriel absorbed your soul and took your body to the surface. He offered no violence but the humans attacked him anyway. He made no move to retaliate, and only stumbled his way back to your mother and I with Chara's body in hand." Asgore turned to meet Asriel's eyes head on., "I held your dust in my hand."

And wasn't that funny? Hilarious even. Chara started laughing. It started slow and not loud enough to be heard even by Asriel, but the irony of destroying their best friend was getting to Chara. Chara laughed, for real this time and attracted startled gazes from Undyne and Alphys. They held more pity than disgust, but Chara would have preferred the second. Because of course that would happen. Asriel would mess up the plan because it was a terrible plan to begin with. Honestly, the whole situation was hilarious.

But no one else was laughing.

Asriel gripped their hands tighter like his hand was a lifeline cast out to the drowning Chara. But that couldn't be right. Since when could Chara be saved?

Chara's breath finally caught up to them ending their laughter. It was quiet for a moment with the only thing really making itself known being the pity. Asgore face, well even Chara could identify that expression. **(They never were that good at faces despite everything that bonehead taught them).**

"My children…" Asgore moved to put a hand on both Asriel and Chara's shoulders, but again, he paused right before actually touching them as if he were afraid to try. In an even more broken tone than ever before, he continued.

"I, in a fit of vengeance, declared war on humanity. Your mother and I fought… before she left. I haven't seen her in decades."

"Decades?" Asriel asked.

Chara took a look at Asgore. He looked the same. He still had a bush beard. He still towered over the two but moved gently despite all the stature. If it had been decades, then there was no way he could look exactly the same.

"It can't be decades. You haven't changed..." Chara trailed off because lying to oneself was never a good thing.

"Boss monsters only age when they can pass their magic onto their children." Asriel whispered in horror.

Then Chara took another look. At how tired Asgore seemed. His body was physically the same, but he held it like a burden. Wouldn't that explain Undyne too? Some strange new recruit that was somehow familiar enough with Asgore to sass him? Even Alphys as a scientist would make sense. They were in one of the rooms of Chara's old doctor, but there were things he'd never allow inside like the comic books and action figures.

Asgore's hands shook, but he still stood tall and imposing, with a gaze that couldn't quite reach their eyes. "Now you know what I've done in your name. What I declared in a fit of passion I don't have the intention to recant. I lost both my children that day. It's a miracle you've returned, but I remember holding Asriel's dust in my arms. I remember seeing your corpse Chara. I swore that humanity would pay for the loss of my children."

His head hung low, Asgore whispered out, "Though, because of this war, I fear I've lost the right to call you my children-"

Chara threw both arms around him, and while a big kid didn't cry, Asriel was crying enough for the both of them. There were a dozen things going through Chara's mind, but when they tried to think of what to say, nothing really came to mind.

What Chara really did was hug Asgore closer and think of their old stash of buttercups in the closet. Perhaps a new plan was needed, but only after their tears dried up…

So much for big kids not crying.

* * *

 **I think the best part of writing is putting a different spin on a (chara)cter due to either new ideas or lack of existing information. Some characters can have drastically different attitudes and still get the same canon results we see in the game. There are so many potent emotions to explore.**

 **In this fic, I'm of course talking about Dr. WingDing. In here, he's secretly a memelord that was trying to film a vine but tripped into his creation. The vine went on to get millions of views, but everyone forgot why.**


	5. In Which No one Gets What They Want

Undyne tried not to shuffle in place because royal guard training emphasized posture and a ready to act at any time attitude. Granted, none of the other recruits could stand still either with being distracted by sticks or bones and all that nonsense, but Undyne needed to at least try looking good in front of Alphys. Even if Alphys was part of the nervousness in the first place, the attempt was necessary. Oh yeah, and of course Undyne didn't want to mess up in front of the king again.

The whole situation was all thanks to Undyne putting her foot in her mouth earlier. Honestly, she could have handled the whole situation with the kids a whole lot better. What was the proper protocol when you declared war after your children were killed only for your children to reappear? Not that Undyne would have followed the protocol anyway, but she could have pretended to try. She should have tried better to help out.

Undyne tried not to look at Asgore during the whole tearful reunion thing that was going on. Instead she looked over to Alphys and shrugged in helplessness. Alphys just shook her head wildly to show she was equally lost on what the proper way to approach this situation was. To be honest, it felt like the plot from one of their late night anime binges, but they were the background characters trying not to interrupt the dramatic backstory going on.

"So… What do you think of well..." Alphys traced an invisible circle through the air with her hand gesturing towards the furry bunch of Dreemurrs that were now hugging amidst plenty of tears and overall fluffiness given to any interaction with literal goats. It was like a giant pillow pile of tears. Even the human was crying and shoving their face into the King's fur, and Undyne would rather eat her armor than admit that the sight was just as heartbreaking.

"They're a bunch of softies." Undyne snorted and rolled her eyes. "The brats included."

Alphys blinked, "I mean, well do you really think that?" She looked surprised and Undyne didn't blame her one bit.

Undyne sighed. "It's fine. They're not… bad." The problem really wasn't Chara or Asriel's attitude or attempts to get her angry by making fish puns. Hell, the kid had spirit but Undyne had to deal with Sans while he took the bare minimum training needed for being a lookout. She got used to fish puns.

"You just seemed a little… ummm well... upset before."

"Ha! I just needed to talk some sense into some crybabies. Yeah that's right… He… he…" Undyne stopped when it began to sound like she was trying to convince herself.

"Well I mean…" Alphys' mumble, while admittedly cute, wasn't too discernible for Undyne's ears, but she still tried to listen instead of leave her eyes on the big confession scene. Something about the tears played on an emotion that Undyne really wasn't too ready to identify.

Asgore put a hand on Asriel's shoulder and was whispering something Undyne couldn't quite hear. When Asgore tried to move his other arm, it was hampered by the fact that Chara still hadn't even let go of the king. What a big bunch of family. All together. Asgore's smile glowed like all the lights suddenly started pouring into a dark room. Oh man it was like one of those slice of life animes that Undyne would never admit to anyone except Alphys that she loved watching.

Look at that big family. Look at the little human crying and be completely oblivious to the fact that monsterkind wouldn't be here if not for humans. Humans caused all the suffering in the Underground, yet look at how Asgore walked on air in a way that not even training Undyne could bring.

Undyne wasn't upset. She wasn't. Why would she be? It wasn't like she had a family in the first place.

Any line of thinking was further interrupted when Alphy's muttering picked up. "I'm just worried Undyne. I mean it's great what's happening here but ummm do you think it's going to last?"

"Huh?" Undyne turned her head fast enough that the whiplash could have caused a hurricane. A hurricane of spears! Yeah that sounded awesome and nothing to do with that big happy family. "Whatcha mean Alphys?"

Alphy's clenched her claws together and seemed to shrink back into the wall. "Don't you find it… well odd?"

"The brats?"

"Yes!" Alphys stopped slouching just the tiniest bit at the moment of her declaration. "They should be dead, and we know nothing about why they're not! Is this because Prince Asriel absorbed the human soul? Is it some kind of magic?"

Even before Alphys said that, a sense of dread crawled down Undyne's back. Alphy's words just amplified that sinking feeling. "I dunno. Maybe human illnesses distort space and time."

Alphys' face lit up in a smile. "Oh like in Mew Mew Kissy The Prequel when she gets a cold, and her powers get distorted, and she ends up learning important lessons of not overdoing it when she's sick! Which is, by the way, one of the best arcs of the prequel to Mew Mew Kissy…" Alphys slowed down to a still in the middle of her passionate rant, the silence punctuated by her own face paling in terror.

"What's up?"

"Illness. Right illnesses. That's what happened. Chara got sick. The prince absorbed Chara's soul in grief because anything else would be ridiculous. There's no way they would have planned it out, and even if they did, how could they be alive?"

"Huh?"

Undyne felt an itch on the back of her neck that took all of her willpower to try not to scratch. Totally didn't have anything to do with the building panic and still swirling pile of emotions Undyne was dealing with. She felt fine!

Apparently she felt better than Alphys because she shook in place like the slightest breeze would knock her over.

"What are you talking apart Alphys?"

"How do we know they're here? How do we know that Chara isn't still sick, or that Asriel won't spontaneously turn to dust because the time space magic or whatever runs out? We don't!"

"Oh." Oh indeed. Talk about a troubling line of thought. Would be pretty rotten for Asgore to reunite with his kids only for them to get sick again. Hell, who knows what that would do for him. He was happy now, and something told Undyne that having that taken away by the same exact events as before wouldn't go over so well. Undyne obviously couldn't let that happen to him, but it wasn't like she was a super smart scientist that could solve-

"Wait, aren't you the new royal scientist? You are aren't you?"

In that moment, Alphys reminded Undyne of a deer stuck in a blue magic attack or however else that human saying went because she froze in place. "I mean I guess."

"You can help them!"

"I don't know the first thing about medicine! I'm just an intern!"

"Didn't you just build a soul device? Didn't you just build a robot?" Alphys looked away for some reason at that, but Undyne wasn't going to let her sit there. Undye grabbed Alphys' shoulders with her arms and tried not to shake too much from her own nervousness at being near Aphys. "You're not an intern. You're a doctor! Doctor Alphys! Asgore believes in you and it's not like I haven't stopped!"

Alphys went bright red and Undyne did too when she realized she was touching Alphys' shoulders. "Ummm yeah! I believe in you…" Undyne let her hands fall back to her sides.

"I-I I don't think that umm robots count. I don't know about biology..."

"You can try at least! We'll just do this right now!" Undyne turned and at the top of her lungs called out, "HEY ASGORE!"

Asgore looked up from the big hug pile, and without a hint of displeasure or rudeness because he was that kind of softy, called back, "I'll be right there."

"WHAT! No. you can't!" Alphys whispered as Asgore gently extracted the iron-clad grips of children from his body. Undyne didn't envy him in that regard because neither of the two kids were budging. "Undyne, I don't think i can talk to him!"

"Come on Alphys! I believe you!" Undyne really wanted to show solidarity by grabbing Alphy's shoulders again, but even Undyne couldn't be that brave to push the physical contact with Alphys **(the person Undyne WAS TOTALLY NOT IN LOVE WITH)**! Instead, she settled by grinning. "You're really smart, you know that?"

Alphys went bright red which was weird because Undyne thought Alphys chattered when she was nervous. Alphys eventually smiled the tiniest bit and whispered out, "I mean I guess if you believe me." Her voice rose. "Yeah, I can do this!"

There. There was the passion in Alphys. There was the resolve that enamored Undyne. Alphys could figure this out easy! It didn't even matter to Undyne that it was a human she was helping because really she wasn't helping the human or the kid in the first place. There were more important people here.

"What is it that you wanted Undyne?"

Undyne's smile didn't falter when she turned before the king who'd given her so much. He didn't sound upset even though Undyne went against his wishes and interrupted his big emotional moment. Hell, he sounded completely interested in Undyne's opinion despite all the sass and backhanded comments because Asgore always made time for orphans.

He always made time for Undyne.

Undyne couldn't let him face the despair of losing his children again.

"I don't know, what do you think doctor Alphys?"

Undyne's grin grew so wide that she was sure her face would split. No, right now, she was helping people who mattered, and with any luck, she'd never have to deal with that human ever again.

* * *

Chara mused for a moment on that oh so faithful green striped shirt. That shirt served Chara well in many endeavors like getting muddy in the garden or running underneath the waterfalls in well... Waterfall.

It was a loyal sweater that could hide the tears of any who wore it. Not that Chara cried. At all. Prep- uhhh preposterous! Yeah that was the word. Preposterous that Chara needed to be pried away from Asgore because that would be showing weakness. Chara never showed weakness!

While Asgore walked off to answer the questions of the fishbait, Chara took a moment to get back some composure. Chara straightened themselves up, doing the best they could to wipe away the dampness from the not-tears that they were not crying. Wait was that a double negative? Didn't matter because Chara wasn't upset. Not upset at all.

"Asriel."

At just that one word, the tiny fluffy goat hurled himself to Chara's side like the dogs of war were at his feet snipping at his heels. Of course an unintentional consequence of that action revealed itself when he threw his arms around Chara in a bone crushing hug. Chara just rolled their eyes because at this point what was even the point.

"Chara," Asriel bleated like the goat he always would be. "What did we do?"

"Nothing yet."

Asriel was quiet enough so that only Chara could hear him which at the very least made sure that none of bigger monsters could interrupt what probably would be a very important conversation that could not wait. Plans needed to be made after all. Speaking of which...

"It is obvious that the plan went wrong."

"Went wrong?" Asriel shoved Chara away just a little bit so that Chara could fully appreciate the indignation and rage burning in his eyes. "You died."

Chara tried not to laugh, instead compromising with an undignified chuckle. "That was the plan remember?"

Asriel crossed his arms. "I don't think that's what you meant, you idiot! I don't think the plan was to start a stupid war! You stupid, stupid idiot!"

Chara blinked at that choice bit of words the fluffball went with. Asriel must be pissed considering just yesterday, or a couple decades ago depending on how you looked at it, Asriel thought fudge was a bad word. Asriel probably wasn't handling things too well.

Well the tears might have been a giveaway if Asriel wasn't such a crybaby. Course language on the other hand? Something needed to be very wrong. Chara was about to respond when something else distracted the children. That something else came in the form of Undyne stomping right towards both Asriel and Chara gesturing her arms and shouting back towards Asgore.

"WHAT IF THE HUMANS USED THEIR EVIL TIME POWERS? THINK ABOUT IT!"

Well, if anything could kill the lingering emotional tension between Asriel and Chara's failed masterplan, it had to be that statement. Asriel snorted out loud and Chara felt a growing grin that forced the two to set aside the issue of assisted suicide for another more private time and focus more on the farce being performed right in front of them,

Undyne was turning red from what looked like heat exhaustion and emotion as she marched past the paper-litterted tables in the room. Behind her, the doctor was stumbling and talking to Asgore who humored this comedy with all his ordinary normal temperament. Undyne stopped in place right before she would have knocked them over and started gesturing towards Chara and Asriel with each word

"Come on Asgore, humans are emotionless husks! They definitely have the potential to be as cruel as using their magic to create this torture! Humans are evil!" Undyne turned her head to Chara. "Uhhh no offense."

"Humans suck. None taken."

Really all Chara wanted was contex in this situation. The fish did not respond by reading Chara's mind and thus didn't do Chara such a favor. Instead she just grinned at Alphys like she just accomplished some great feat of observation. Really, Chara could have told them that humans were evil, but at the very least Undyne seemed to understand this fact. Maybe Undyne wasn't as bad as Chara thought.

"It could be some evil plot! Maybe some spooky overlord used his magic powers to create a time loop! They used time powers!" Undyne just kept going even as Alphys looked like she wanted to hide her face behind one of the textbooks at each word Undyne said.

"Golly, what a bunch of idiots."

Sn-snerk. Chara needed to shove their arms into their sweater after Asriel's comment so that their snorting laughter couldn't be heard. Apparently, Asriel was hilarious when he did finally grow a spine. Chara guessed being thrown around by someone trying to kill their immediate family tended to turn even people like Asriel slightly bitter.

"I uhh I guess magic could be a reason like Undyne says? I- I mean there's some tests that might work." If Alphys had nails, she'd be biting them. Did she have nails actually? Chara wasn't actually quite close enough to tell. In a way, the question was quite like Chara's other numerous unanswered questions.

"Hmm." Asgore helpfully added. "I see you two make a point." It was always nice when Chara had no idea whatever was going on because right now they had no frame of reference for Alphys' sigh of relief.

"Gosh, it might be nice to know what everyone was talking about!" Asriel grumbled just loud enough for Chara to hear.

"Then why don't you ask?" Chara elbowed Asriel. "They're right there."

"I'm not going up there! You do it." Asriel shoved Chara forward, and thing might have escalated if Asgore didn't chose that moment to render their argument invalid.

"Someone will need to watch over you two children for a bit."

Waitwhat. No. Chara was a big kid! Asgore didn't need to stick them with a babysitter! "I can watch over Asriel, Dad."

"Chara! I'm a big kid too! I can watch over myself!"

Asgore knelt down so that Chara could view him at eye level. Asgore put a hand on each of Asriel and Chara's shoulders. "Dr. Alphys and Undyne just came to me with some concerns they've been having over you two."

"Figures." Asriel turned to Undyne and blew a raspberry at Undyne

"Asriel..." Asgore scolded. Asriel reluctantly looked away from Undyne probably at the point when he realized that Asgore wasn't joking around. Still, Chara secretly gave Asriel a fistbump. A fistbump of secrets in that while Asgore wouldn't be able to tell what was going on behind his back, Undyne certainly would be able to see the movement going on behind their literal backs.

Chara didn't turn around but really didn't need to. The irritation rolling off of the knight like some great storm of fish fury spoke for itself.

Asgore commanded both of the kid's attentions back again when he gave a slight squeeze of their shoulders in a facilme of a hug. "Dr. Alphys is worried about your reappearance and how there might be something to it. She wants to bring you to the lab to do some tests."

"Like Chara's old checkups?"

Chara made a face at the thought of hours spent being poked with needles and other science equipment. Asgore chuckled to himself probably because Chara's sour expression.

"Just like those though not as long I hope " His face returned to a serious expression. "She wants to take you to the labs, but I would prefer if I can meet with my council before I let you two wander around. Someone will need to watch over you for a bit."

Undyne laughed. "Not to mention the whole standing orders of kill humans on sight. I mean, the prince will probably be safe but the brats will probably get into trouble the minute your back is turned."

Asgore cast Undyne a strange look, but he didn't seem like he was about to chastise her. In fact, he seemed more distracted with his own thoughts, content to only keep his gaze on Undyne.

"I can take care of myself!" Chara emphasized by crossing both arms and standing as tall as possible in order to make their stance seem as intimidating as possible.

"Sure you can." Undyne shot back like the annoying fish she was. Oh, that petty fish was posturing too now which was admittedly so much cooler than Chara's.

Asgore stood back up from his spot next to Chara and Asriel completely ignoring Chara's arguement or attempt "Well, I think there's one person who can take care of you." He turned around to face the direction of Alphys.

Alphys didn't look up at first because she was busy grabbing textbooks and papers from the lab tables and stacking them into an unwieldy tower. When she finally noticed Asgore starring, she violently shook her head back and forth.

"I- I can't! I need to go get some of the stuff ready at the lab. I can't watch them. I haven't even been to the lab since becoming the doctor! There's so much to do!"

"Hmm, Dr. Alphys, I believe I still need to to give you some codes and other equipment the royal scientist needs, but that doesn't matter right now. I had another person in mind anyway."

Then who was Asgore staring at? Chara followed Asgore's gaze, but the only other person in here was-

No. He'd have to be insane. There was no way Asgore would…

Maybe Chara needed get those buttercups after all.

"Undyne, I have a mission for you."

* * *

 **This chapter was a bit shorter than usual, but college starting up put some difficulties into finishing.**

 **So anyway what's going on with the two zombie kids? It's a good thing Alphys is on the case! I'm sure there will be no emotional trauma or negative consequences related to experimenting with magic/determination or other things!**


	6. In Which Undyne Fails at Babysitting

When Asgore repeated, for the third time mind you, all of the instructions of what to do if one of the kids snuck out or how to keep them entertained, Undyne finally snapped. Jumping up to attention from her spot next to Asgore's big red magical tree of unexplained magical power, she waved her fist at Asgore with all her pent up energy. "Come on fuzzball, I wasn't born yesterday. I know how to keep an eye on two brats."

Asgore crossed his arms and simply stood still on the path of fallen leaves in front of his home instead of moving like he should have been minutes ago. "Undyne..." His tone left it as both a rebuke and chance for Undyne to apologize.

Undyne rolled her eyes. "Fine, I promise to not call them brats in front of you."

Asgore didn't say anything but he did raise an eyebrow. Luckily. Undyne didn't care about his point. "Come on don't you have an important meeting to go to?"

"I do." The king dressed up in his finest for the occasion after all, and by finest, Undyne meant his awesome golden armor he wore every now and then. Which on a scale of one to awesome, definitely ranked right up there. That stuff was heavy, but he moved like it was barely a sweater. Talk about awesome even though Undyne really wasn't too sure on why he was wearing it right now. Maybe to impress people?

"I wanted to check on one last thing before I go." Asgore lifted a foot up and put it down just as fast. He'd been doing that long enough for an impressions to be left behind in the leaves.

"Go on then! The sooner you get to the meeting, the sooner you can go back to helicoptering." Which to be fair was harsh considering the fact that both kids were previously dead, but Asgore couldn't hang around all the time especially if the whole point of his meeting involved making sure that no monsters accidentally killed the human.

Undyne still didn't know what to think about that, but hey, if it made Asgore happy, she'd keep ignoring her burning sensation of stabbing first. Who cared about the hopes and dreams of every monster being crushed by humankind?

Asgore sighed and instead of leaving like he was supposed to, he put a hand on Undyne's shoulder. "I know I'm asking a lot of you."

"Yeah, you're asking me to babysit!"

Undyne's forced laughter really didn't make much of an impression into the silence. She could hear birdsong for who knows why but not the sound of Asgore's laughter like she wanted. Asgore didn't chuckle even a little instead just continuing with his serious tone. "I've been assuming quite a few things on your part here. You must feel like I've been ignoring you-

"Go to the meeting before I drag your sorry butt there myself!"

The expression on Asgore's face twisted into surprise for a moment before he finally laughed. "I can see now is not a good time. Perhaps we can talk over some tea at some later point."

"Yeah whatever." Undyne waved off Asgore as if she secretly didn't really want to go and do such a would be ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as going up to the king and asking for some of the golden flower tea bags he made. It wasn't like Undyne wanted to be just like Asgore and drink that tea even in the comfort of her apartment. No way.

"Wait a minute. What are you waiting around for?" Undyne scowled because Asgore, the king of delaying on important decisions, still refused to budge.

"Alright, alright Undyne." Finally, the big guy turned around and left like he should have half an hour ago. Honestly, what did he think would happen for the whole few hours of babysitting?

Now that Asgore finally left, Undyne turned to face Asgore's home in New home. Ughhhh honestly who let him pick names out. At least Asriel seemed like a normal name so Asgore couldn't be that bad at naming thing. If it turned out that there was some dark secret that Asriel's name was just as bad well, Undyne would quit. Granted the Queen might have picked that name out, but Undyne could hold out hope. Hell, as names went Chara's wasn't a bad name either. Asgore really went all out when he named his kids didn't... he?

Oh, fishsticks.

Since when did Undyne act like that? Since when did Undyne dealt with humans in a capacity that didn't involve stabbing? Apparently right now. Undyne slapped herself on the head. Now was not the time to start putting emotions in her job. Her job was to keep the two brats out of trouble.

Undyne stopped on the doorstep with one hand still on the door but still right before she was actually in the household. Her hand shook as she pressed it against the doorframe.

She really was doing this wasn't she? On one hand, part of Undyne complete understood Asgore's logic. There were standing orders to kill humans on sight after all, so the children needed to be watched, and there was no guarantee that any guard that Asgore went to go get would understand the situation. In fact, considering the actions of the last human to fall down…

Well making sure that someone Asgore trusted to keep an eye of things was completely necessary. Undyne wouldn't be lying about how proud she felt that Asgore trusted Undyne enough to listen. Undyne hated humanity. Asgore knew this, but he trusted that she'd follow orders all the same. She couldn't exactly let the guy down after that now could she?

Still…

The human wasn't the only problem either. Something about the prince tickled Undyne's back like a vine crawling… actually Undyne had no idea where that metaphor was going. Probably where misunderstood metaphors went to die because she skipped school back when she was a kid. **(As evident by the fact it was a simile and not a metaphor at all).**

Undyne really didn't have an idea why the prince bugged her. That hidden glee in Asriel's eyes when he insulted her probably had something to do with it. He acted almost as if he indulged in some long time habit. Which made no sense by the way! As stories told it, the prince was as soft as Asgore. Hell, Undyne thought he cried at least five times in the time since Undyne first met him though circumstances probably weren't ideal considering the whole come back from the dead thing and Undyne almost killing him…

And another thing! Undyne tried to shove spears through both of them! Talk about a recipe for disaster. What was she supposed to do now? Read them bedtime stories? Is that what babysitters did? Back before Undyne was awesome, anyone watching her simply needed to hand her a stick and tell her to go fight something. Something told Undyne that Asgore might not be too happy with that specific style of babysitting.

Undyne's hand stung reminding her that yes, she'd been standing in the doorway ranting to herself in her head. Her poor hand went as numb as Undyne's brain trying to comprehend the whole situation.

Guess she couldn't put it off for any longer.

"For land and King." Undyne whispered to herself and entered into the house. She marched straight into the house all business like and ready to kick butt. Past the staircase with twin padlocks because for some reason Asgore felt the need to protect his basement despite having an open door policy in the rest of the house. Well, almost all the rest of the house. Undyne's march stalled right at the closed door of the kid's room.

Now before the whole magical event of children suddenly appearing out of thin air that Alphys was going to investigate like the amazing scientist she was, the children's room had been a somber affair. Undyne wandered in once. Just the once. For one, the room held some sort of aura about it, and while Undyne would normally just chalk that up to superstition and whatnot, when the king carefully and lovingly maintained a room for people that should never have come back?

Well Undyne regularly met ghosts that held fewer specters than this room did.

While just a bit dusty **(the regular kind mind you),** what stood out to Undyne that first time was how carefully everything was placed. The toys were arranged in piles, the pictures were straightened, and the beds were made as if someone could walk in and sleep on them at any time. The room looked like there were people living in it while going untouched for years at the same time. Of course it felt creepy after that!

"It's time for Monsters like you to be erased. Shall we begin?"

Still stalled right next to the door, Undyne couldn't help but overhear Chara's shout followed by a thud and a clang of metal. Almost immediately, Undyne 's hand clenched into a grip around a spear she summoned with the force of her will. Undyne's foot almost crossed over the doorstep when the thought of the last time she charged into a situation crossed her mind. Undyne could imagine how that future conversation would go with Asgore

"Hey Asgore, I know you told me to babysit your kids but I ended up stabbing Chara over a misunderstanding. But you have to admit. It was an awesome move, huh?"

Whoever said Undyne couldn't learn was admittedly probably right, but she'd punch them anyway. Still, her good sense was telling her to keep inconspicuous, so Undyne peered inside the door crack...

* * *

 _Clang_!

The demon lord of awesome knife tricks and pain paused right before the God of Hyperdeath. Chara blinked as the result of the fearsome attack not even fazing the terrible deity. To be fair, Chara accidentally threw the pillow against the top of the desk while knocking down several items in the process and creating that metal clanking noise, but Asriel didn't even flinch!

"He he he… You really are an idiot!" Asriel struck a pose, shifting the blanket tied around his neck so that it covered his face. "Did you really think that would beat me?" On top of the mountain of stuffed pillow and plush toys, the ominous sight of Chara's terrible foe might have struck a chord of fear in Chara's heart if page thirty-seven of the two's joint backstory didn't already establish that Chara sold their soul long ago. **(The full version went on for a whole seventy pages if they ever found it)**.

Asriel, the god of hyperdeath, took advantage of Chara's stupefied moment to jump forward with his pillow brandished in an arc of promised embarrassment. Luckily, Chara already lunged forward with the intent of regaining the pillow the demon accidentally let fly which caused Asriel's attack to miss just as badly as Chara's original blow.

"Gosh, it looks like you're escaping me!" Asriel burst into a ft of demented giggles which annoyed Chara because it sounded so much more realistic. When did he get a chance to practice? Chara scrambled to their fallen weapon as Asriel tried tried to take advantage of Chara's unarmed state.

Asriel swung once. Chara felt time itself seem to slow while, in one smooth move, Chara ducked underneath the pillow and slid against the hardwood floor to their own feather mass of destruction.

Chara struck a pose with their weapon back in hand, trying not to wince at their scraped knees. "You seem to have missed me." Chara winked with maybe just a little more flair than they usually used.

"Stand still!" Asriel lunged forward only for Chara to sidestep his sudden attack with another flamboyant dodge. Asriel's back was left momentarily exposed which was all Chara needed to send Asriel flying with one well placed attack.

"What Asriel? Did you expect me to stand there and take it?"

Asriel hesitated for a second at Chara's comment. His expression fell and Chara almost dropped their pillow to go see what was wrong when Asriel shook his head to remove whatever pensive thought that had been bothering him.

"You've done well!" Asriel jumped back up ot the mountain of pillows and stuffed animals they spent a whole five minutes building. Asriel struck an equally ridiculous pose to mirror Chara's own dramatic posturing. ""But can you survive this! Hyper Infernal blazing!"

And like that, the illusion came undone. "You cheater! That's mine."

"Nu hu." Asriel shook his head like the lair he was. "It's not yours!"

"Is too."

"Is not."

Chara tackled Asriel for real this time. 'That's mine." Then, the two were on the ground and wrestling with one another without a moment to spare. Asriel didn't expect Chara's sudden action, so it was easy enough for Chara to gain the upper hand in their fight. Chara's arms went around Asriel in a hold that no amount if strength would be able to break-

"Alright brats that's enough!"

Chara and Asriel immediately jolted up at the sound of the gratingly familiar voice. Undyne leaned against the door like she'd been there all along and for all Chara knew, she had been. Which made things complicated because Chara really wasn't sure at which point where they went from discussing their failed assisted suicide to being bored enough to reenact the scene where the God of Hyperdeath met the Demon for the first time.

Okay, so sue Chara, they were bored!

"How long were you listening?"

At the same time, Asriel called out "How much did you hear?" Chara shot him a glance and Asriel shrugged. His eyes were darting back and forth from Undyne to Chara showing his thoughts were along the same lines as Chara's. Like any good siblings, their argument immediately sunk to the back of their minds and past them by the time authority came knocking at their doorstep.

Undyne rolled her eyes at the two's question. "Enough."

"We were talking about a game. Yeah, it was part of the game. No buttercups here-" Chara stomped on Asriel's foot to keep him from talking any further. Honestly. He could lie better than this!

"Whatever kid. The only flowers I see here is a bunch of pansies! Fwhahaha" Undyne laughed at her own joke in a way that got on Chara's nerves, but Chara could take a joke about flowers if it meant distracting Undyne from that little buttercup comment. Asriel on the other hand? Well something about the flower comment probably bothered him for some reason that Chara felt like they couldn't quite place.

Asriel's brows furrowed but when he opened his mouth to retort, Chara shot him a glare which made him pause before he conveniently mentioned every last secret the two shared. Chara seized the initiative by subtly asking, "So, by any chance, you didn't overhear anything just now?"

"Only what I needed too!" Undyne boasted which probably wouldn't be the attitude one would have if they overheard anything of Chara and Asriel's real incriminating actions. Chara could deal with the loss of reputation over being caught playing. It's not like Undyne's opinion mattered anyway.

"Whatever you say fish." Asriel dusted off some of the dust clinging to him from his trip to the ground courtesy of Chara. Mind you, this was ordinary dust from long periods of no one going into rooms. Decisively not the powdery corpses of monster, though Chara and Asriel would be corpses if Asgore made them clean up their mess. Chara took a look at the scarred battlefield they left behind, the piles of toys scattered everywhere, beds moved so that they could jump to and fro, and who could forget the whole accidentally knocking over everything on their dressers. They were definite corpses.

"Alright!" Undyne gathered attention back to herself by shouting with full on military voice. "Listen up! I might not have been here to babysit you brats before because of unforeseen circumstances-"

Asriel interrupted with a low chuckle. "Dad kept lecturing you didn't he? What a surprise, he's procrastinating on important decisions."

"Tell me about it. The fuzzball keeps refusing to stop talking!" Undyne groaned which irked Chara. A lot of things irked Chara about Undyne. Who was she to talk so casually about the king? Well, some of the comments were admittedly hilarious, but they still didn't belong in the mouth of some random recruit! Only old people like Gerson were allowed to poke so much fun at Mr. Asgore, certainly not young fish who barely knew Asgore! Right?

Asgore trusted Undyne. Now if Chara was in charge, she'd certainly trust the human hating warrior. To clarify, that wasn't sarcasm. It only made sense to have a second in command that hated the people you were supposed to be fighting. Asgore didn't make sense though. He was Dad. He was kind, trusting, and definitely didn't need someone like Undyne hanging around. Asgore couldn't change that much.

"Anyway if you want to play pretend like babies, you can go back to playing around and-"

"Fight me!" Chara would have jumped Undyne right there if Asriel didn't hold them back.

:Gladly!" Undyne shot up then sunk back down. "Wait. Your Dad will kill me." Undyne sounded so despondent for a second which really set the tone for the rest of her day. Well, Chara's planned antics might have something to do with that, but really who could fault them?

* * *

Undyne really wanted to bang her head into the wall.

"I'm bored." Asriel called out from the fort of stuffed animals and blankets he and Chara had made in the first half hour of Undyne's torture. At least when the two were busy building an admittedly awesome fortress, they didn't have time to insult or annoy Undyne much.

"This is the same." He called out again. Chara nodded in agreement.

"Do something!"

"Oh shut up." Undyne groaned. Sure Asgore, have her babysit a bunch of brats. Nothing could go wrong mostly because nothing was happening! The two brats didn't seem interested in going back to their game with an actual audience, and for some strange reason, watching the two whisper in the corner while occasionally glancing at Undyne was soooo interesting.

Undyne like moving! Sure patrols and sentry duty were boring, but Undyne could move around all the time. She could see it now! When Asgore finally pushed Undyne out of training, she'd be able to patrol whole areas of the kingdom by herself! Probably Waterfall to be honest, but hey, she'd take anything she could get. Except Hotland because it was too hot. And not Snowdin because it was too cold. Okay Waterfall it was.

"Hey fish!" Undyne twitched as Asriel called out to Undyne. 'We're bored. Let's do something fun. I hate being bored." He stood up from the fortress of blankets.

While Undyne wanted to strangle the goat, what she really did was plaster a smile on "Why don't you color something?"

Chara stood up too now and stood right next to Asriel so that the two could pretend to be despondent through slouching and whining and purposely harassing Undyne. "I don't color. Coloring is stupid. Let's go outside."

Undyne snarled. "Come on. You guys color! Asgore even keeps your pictures up everywhere!"

Chara blinked and that expression of distaste for Undyne actually fell for once. "He kept my picture?" Chara's question had a different tone for once. Almost fragile...

Geez. Undyne actually bit back her next comment at that and instead meekly, "More than one. He's got some in his room even." Undyne pointed out the picture of a golden flower that hung on the wall and a couple others which judging from the two kids rushing over to look at, had been unnoticed amidst their playtime.

"He, he kept it!" Over by the wall, Chara whispered to Asriel at a volume that really didn't count as a whisper

"Mine too!" Asriel's eyes were on a faded illustration of a boss monster with scribbled rainbows. He jostled his sibling's shoulder to show off the picture clutched in his hands. Undyne couldn't help but notice that when Chara turned around, they were smiling. It wasn't the smile that Undyne knew signaled shenanigans but rather simply one of joy.

For a moment, Undyne forgot her own grievances against the kids. If something as simple as some art could make them smile, well it seemed childish to hold things against them. "Of course he kept them. He's a softy like that."

And like that, the moment was ruined.

"Take that back!"

"Yeah!"

Hello foot, meet mouth. One of these days, Undyne was going to get herself killed. Whelp the peace was nice while it lasted. "He's a softy! I could say worse!"

Now a note on tone. What Undyne meant to convey involved her intense admiration for the king and his ability to smile and laugh even with all the crummy things that happened to him in his life. What she actually sounded like? Well, Undyne could guess judging from the death glare Chara gave her. The scowl on Asriel's face also illustrated some points,

"Gosh, you can say worse? I didn't know you have that kind of vocabulary," Asriel chimed in like a warning bell for Undyne's inability to deal with standard social conventions. Well you know what, screw it! She wasn't going to listen to a brat that had everything Undyne ever wanted-

Nevermind.

"You! I don't like your attitude!"

"Well golly, you don't say? I didn't know that. I'll just sit in the corner in awkward silence… hey, kinda like you and Alphys! You two were sure getting along. How's that relationship going? Have you been able to manage a sentence yet?"

Undyne could feel herself go red at the mention of her not crush, oh and the white hot burning sensation of vengeance filling her. That too.

"Nice going, Ree." Chara added. The two slapped hands together in a high five because of course the two were tag teaming Undyne. Like her day couldn't get any worse.

"Listen up!" Undyne could definitely feel a vein near her eye twitching. "I don't like you. I'm just here to keep an eye on you for the fuzzball."

"Where do you come from calling him that, fish?" Chara snarled.

"I'll call the pushover whatever I want." Asgore was fine with the names! He even laughed! They couldn't come in here and tell Undyne how to live her life! "Why don't you go play with dolls like the good kids you are."

Asriel scoffed. "You're one to talk! You don't get to call us kids!."

Something snapped, probably Undyne's patience. She stomped right up to Asriel and towered over the goat causing his facade of smug confidence to immediately break. Undyne leaned down so that she could look him straight in the eye and watch him tremble. "I'm not in stripes."

"You're not part of the guard either."

Undyne's mind stalled at that underhanded comment and Chara, seeing Undyne hesitate, went for the kill. "You know Asgore told us about you before he left!"

"Of course he did! I'm-"

"A pity project, did you know that?" Chara tilted their head and gave a smile so full of teeth and contorted muscles, so full of hate, that even Undyne felt something stir in her. "He told us to watch out because you're too rash for him to ever trust. You'll never make it into the royal guard."

That lying, filthy, human! Asgore trusted her. "Then why did he let me watch you guys. Huh?"

Chara shrugged. "I don't know. Weren't you the one who said no one else could do it? Nobody else knew we were here. If he trusts you so much, why wouldn't he tell you all about how we showed up in the first place?"

"Could have saved us a murder attempt if you were so trustworthy!" Asriel added in.

"Face it. You're here because you were convenient. Nothing more."

"You … stupid brats!" If it had been anyone else, Undyne would already be fighting them. As it was, she probably would start letting the punches fly if she stayed in the room any longer. Undyne almost tore the door off its frame in the time it took for her to retreat to the living room away from those annoying brats. She did, by the way, see the not so secret handshake the two performed as she stormed off because she needed salt to rub in her wounds.

Undyne's hands were shaking and clenching them into fists did nothing to still the uneasy in her very soul. Undyne just needed to think a little. She needed to move. She needed to go outside even. Nothing they said was true. Nothing!

Bloody kids. Undyne didn't need this. She sank into one of the chairs at the living room and pressed her head against the table. Just a bunch of kids.

Kids...

Oh what the hell. They were right. Undyne was acting like a kid! She even stormed off in a temper tantrum! Talk about handling things well. Undyne was practically a royal guardswoman by now. She passed all the training with flying colors, she knew the names of every one of the guardsmen still operating after the fall of the second human. She could fight! Undyne was a Royal Guard in everything but name.

Maybe they were right. Undyne's temper got the best of her in this situation and many before. What if the whole reason Asgore wouldn't promote her was because she kept sticking her foot in her mouth? What if it was because she treated him like some ordinary person with her constant teasing?

Nah.

"Come on Undyne. Asgore knows you're better than this."

Really though, Asgore didn't care that she teased him all the time. He was just that nice. Undyne's migraine might be pounding against her head, but she wasn't done yet. Did those kids think that Undyne would be so easy to get rid of? To hell with that! She just needed a breather.

Undyne stood up, popping the knuckles in her hands. Time to get back into the fray. So deadset in her determination to get through the job, she didn't spare any time in marching straight towards the children's room.

"Hey guys! You'll have to try a little harder than that!" Undyne kicked open the door to the children's room and took a quick look inside. "I'm back! Who's ready to get their butts kicked…" Undyne trailed off to the empty room.

Undyne walked forward to check inside the pillow fort only to be met with nothing more useful than a pile of toys. Undyne checked underneath the bed, but no humans jumped out, Inside Undyne's mouth was a bad taste only matched by her growing gut feeling that something seemed wrong. She didn't even notice that the door to the house laid wide open for the rest of the world. She didn't notice the footprints in the leaves leading off into the distance. In fact, she only noticed the door handing open after losing valuable time searching the rest of the rooms in the house.

Staring at the open door, though, was when Undyne knew she'd made a terrible mistake.

* * *

 **Undyne can't take her eyes off of the royal kids for five minutes can she?**

 **To be fair to Asriel and Chara, in the games even when all the monsters are trying to kill Frisk, it's mostly pretty nice. They're probably used to great treatment in a time period where no one wants to kill them. What's the harm in going outside, they're big kids!**

 **Meanwhile Undyne's day is getting worse all the time.**


	7. In Which Many Meetings Take Place

The king under the mountain, Asgore, tried to remind himself that bureaucracy was good. Bureaucracy kept the country running. He tapped his foot against the cracked tiles which strained against the pressure of golden flowers growing between the cracks. It was all Asgore could do not to simply snap and do something crazy. He could start gardening! Only a madman would start gardening in the middle of a council meeting. As tempting as that sounded with the session stretching for hours longer than it usually would, Asgore stilled his hand and only leaned back in his throne in quiet resignation..

The fact of the matter was that he needed to sit and listen for hours and hours to get bureaucracy to work. He needed to sit on his throne and listen to the councilors in all their loquacious glory. After all, Asgore announced that his dead children miraculously returned a few days ago. There was quite a lot to discuss and all without a good cup of tea to get through the ordeal. And who could forget the paperwork? Apparently saying that it was a good day today on every report he made counted as bad writing! Next they'd be telling him that he was terrible with names.

It was times like this where Asgore missed the Old doctor. Council meetings were always fun since his old friend never really bothered with paperwork either. It was one of the things Asgore liked about the last Royal scientist. As talented as young Alphys was, Asgore didn't have the same kind of working relationship with her. The Doctor just explained whatever shenanigans he was doing and asked for more funding. They'd have tea while the old skeleton would try using powerpoints to explain things that Asgore couldn't make heads or tail out of.

Asgore missed those times all the more whenever he was stuck sitting in his throne room listening to a certain set of monsters complain about things. Sure, he always considered the idea of gardening next to the regal fold out chairs of the council members, but Asgore wasn't so rude as to start paying more attention to his garden trowel than the three monsters sitting next to him.

Councilor Look- At- Me did indeed look at Asgore with his singular bloodshot eye as he continued complaining. His green skin looked almost darker than it usually did which meant that he had another cold. Asgore didn't want to pry into another's affairs, but he did make a mental note to try sending a batch of herbal tea to Look-At-Me's house. Asgore could always tell when the councilor was falling ill because the poor monster always grew sour… well more sour than usual.

"Not to mention that you failed to pick a royal scientist for years now. I know you liked Dr. whoever it was…"

Asgore folded his hands up and frowned, staring directly at the old Lookit monster uncomfortable curled up in his fold-out chair. "Use his name. He did enough for all of monsterkind to be afforded that respect."

Councilor Look-At-Me paused in his tirade for a second, blinking his one-eye long and slow. Asgore blinked his own eyes in sympathy. "You don't remember his name, do you?" Asgore didn't want to scold the counselor, but he was disappointed to the point where he briefly considered withholding his future gift. Luckily, the second councilor quickly made Asgore forget that idea.

"To be fair king Fluffybuns, I don't recall his name either! Well, I guess the old age might have something to do with that " Gerson chimed in from his seat. Gerson's humor probably stemmed from the fact that he brought his own seating to the meeting. The royal fold-out chairs were nothing compared to his own green camping chair that Gerson scavenged from the dump and lovingly restored so that the turtle could taunt others with his wares. When the others needed to uncomfortably sit down, Gerson could sit back and take in everyone else's misery.

Across from Gerson, Captain Lionbrow added in his two bits. "One might think it be difficult remembering most things at your age." Lionbrow's tail swished back and forth from its spot poking out from the back of his regal fold out chair. Almost covered up by his mane of hair, Lionbrow's smirk betrayed the humor in his eyes. "Didn't you retire a few years ago?"

"Now listen here, you whippersnapper!" If Asgore didn't know any better, Gerson might have sounded upset with his admonishment. As it was, Gerson's couldn't keep a straight face through his tirade. "I dragged myself all the way through Hotland back and forth far too many times this week to be sidelined into retirement again!"

Asgore stroked his beard, trying hard not to shake with laughter. "Gerson, be kind to poor Captain Lionbrow. Astigmatism Senior and Superior Dog are still on leave and are unable to back him up."

Lionbrow raised his tail like a schoolchild would raise their hand, only choosing to continue speaking when Asgore waved him on. "Actually, I believe Captain Astigmatism Senior is on patrol and simply forgot his phone. And I think Superior Dog is dealing with relatives, though I did leave her a message about the situation."

"I pity her!" Gerson added in. "I can't imagine dealing with people who are older and constantly reminding all the younglings of that fact!" Gerson leaned back on his canvas chair apparently oblivious to the bemused gazes of the others. Just when Asgore was about to remind Gerson that the turtle was only a few months older than himself, Councilor Look-At Me stood up.

"Yes, yes. I'm glad that you're able to joke around at a time like this." Councilor Look-at-Me croaked out. His voice sounded raspy like he'd been coughing, but Asgore could tell he was getting annoyed. "But I'd think we should move on, so this doesn't drag on for a few more hours. Especially considering you're all ignoring the fact that there is a human we need to discuss!"

Perhaps with only one eye, the effect of his glare was heightened. Look-At-Me's statement

made Asgore sigh and reluctantly resign himself back to business. "Yes, we should move on." He paused when an idea struck him. "Unless you think we should stop for tea?"

"NO!"

Well, when all three councilors objected at the same time, Asgore realized he wouldn't be getting tea anytime soon. Visually, Asgore only clenched his hands together and sat forward on his throne. Such a small move on his part did wonders for the air of the meeting. The reprieve, no matter how short or needed it ended up being, fell apart at the seams. Asgore sat up and went back to that hated bureaucracy.

At least Chara and Asriel were off having fun with Undyne instead of needing to sit here in silence. Asgore envied them. They were probably laughing right now.

* * *

Chara finally stopped laughing like a hyena at the ten minute mark of operation Bug-The-Fish. While one might question how Chara could stand laughing while running in almost a sprint, Chara mentally counterted the argument by thinking of Undyne's face when she discovered that they were gone. The thought of Undyne's expression filled them with determination!

"Hey wait a minute." Chara between gasps of air. "Asriel, aren't you going to say that this was a bad idea?"

Not that Chara was having second thoughts about their whole plan, but Asriel certainly might. Now would be the time too because the two stopped to catch their breath in between two buildings in Monster City **(Also named by Asgore)**. The adrenaline would be running out about now and rational thought might be returning. Wait, did monsters even have adrenaline?

Asriel leaned against the walls of the black and grey building, but when Chara spoke up, he raised his gaze to meet Chara's. Chara needed to strain their eyes against the shadows of the nearby buildings in order to make out Asriel's expression. "Huh, what do you mean Chara?"

Taking a cue from Asriel, Chara leaned on the wall of the building opposite of Asriel to recover from their all out sprint to the city. Chara shrugged their shoulders and held their hands up in a expression of helplessness. "Well, usually this would be the part where you start talking about how wrong this will go."

"This is hardly the worst thing that's we've done." Asriel smile was knowing. "Besides, I know how to get around."

"You're not the only one Azzy." Now that they were being braced by the wall, exhaustion hit Chara like a truck. Chara tried stifling a yawn, and for a moment, considered just ending the whole adventure right there.

Nah, if they went back, Undyne would chain them to their beds, Besides, the call for adventure sung its siren song to them. Chara would sleep later, explore now.

"It's not like monsters are going to be that scary anyway." Chara nodded to themselves. "What are they going to do? Pose a bit? Take us out for ice cream?" Honestly, these were monsters that Asgore was talking about. Even if Asgore declared war on humanity, what did he expect to happen? If a human fell down, Chara could bet that monsters would probably end up adopting them or whatever. It's not like a couple of years of Chara being dead would change one of monsterkind's fundamental characteristics.

Huh, that was a cool word, fundamental. Wait, Chara was getting distracted.

Not too far away form the hidden alcove that they found, Chara could hear the sounds of bells and the murmur of chatter coming from the main street of Monster City. Which reminded Chara, "Hey, where we going anyway?"

"I thought you knew!" Asriel rightfully accused Chara, but there was way Chara would admit that.

"Uhhh of course I do!" Chara didn't quite lie since the two were going somewhere in the Underground. The specifics were immaterial. "You were the one saying that you knew how to get around!"

Asriel stopped leaning against the building to stand ramrod straight in defiance. "Hey, it's not my fault. It's your plan!"

"Hey, murder by association is still murder." Chara pointed out.

Asriel frowned. "We're not killing anyone today are we?"

Chara shook their head slowly at his inane comment. "Not this time."

For a moment, nothing seemed off about that response. Asriel certainly understood it since he dropped the line of questioning and started fiddling with the hem of his sweater. The sounds of the bustling street right next to their hiding spot contrasted against the steady beating of their heart. The heart pounded like some drum signalling the call of war and panic and all that entailed. Chara breathed in again trying to catch their breath which seemed an impossible task when they couldn't hear themselves think.

Eventually, Chara calmed down enough to think against the sudden influx of panic. Chara realized a few moments later what Asriel was actually saying about murder. What Chara was actually saying about the subject.

And Chara didn't like it one bit.

"Hey Azzy?"

"Huh?" Asriel curled his fingers and uncurled them as if the sensation was something to be savored.

"Does something seem off to you?"

Asriel curled his fingers into a fist one more time before keeping them like that. "You mean the war? Dad probably was just upset. He'd never actually follow through on anything."

"Not that." Well actually yes that whole ordeal with Mr. Dad deviated from strange to stranger but Chara needed to be worried about one thing at a time. Take things one step at a time. "I meant about us."

Asriel's ears curled which almost looked adorable if it wasn't marred by the look of confusion on his face. "I… think I know what you mean. I've felt a little off for the past few days."

Chara started walking backwards while facing Asriel so that the two could talk while moving out of the alley. "I thought I was just stressed, but you've been acting pretty weird too. You're... quipping more."

"Quipping?" Asriel raised an eyebrow.

"You know what I mean." Chara shut up when up ahead, a group of rabbit monsters passed by the entrance to the alley. Chara wasn't actually sure what the proper species name for Rabbits were, but it didn't matter because they were already gone. Chara waited a moment to make sure no one would catch even the slightest bit of their conversation. "You've been nasty to Undyne."

"So have you."

"The fish tried to kill us!" When Asriel snorted in laughter, Chara couldn't help but almost break down too because it was one hundred percent they would totally mess with Undyne like this even if Undye didn't fight them. If anything, Chara could respect trying to kill the human. You know what, forget the could. Undyne was pretty cool when she wasn't being outright insubordinate to Mr. Dad.

"Yeah, you're right, but I'm the one to suggest bad plans and you're the one that looks innocent when we get caught. Not the other way around." Chara put a hand to their heart to articulate their point.

Asriel unexpectedly froze in place with one foot still raised to take another step. "What do you mean that I don't look innocent enough?" He blinked in a way that only years of growing up with him told that Chara how much he was lying. "I'm perfectly innocent." He smiled full of teeth choking back laughter. "I just wanted to get some candy."

"Asgore will never buy that!"

Asriel's fake smile dropped. "You're right." He put a hand to his chin and stroked his imaginary beard. "He warned us about going outside or getting caught, so he's probably worried. Why would we sneak out?"

Chara yawned again as they stopped moving. Luckily no one else bothered walking through the shortcuts and back alleys of the city at this hour though an extra person's input might be nice. "Maybe we didn't like Undyne? We wanted to get away from her."

Which was only partially true. Once Chara looked past her disrespect for Mr. Dad, Undyne was the kind of cool knight Chara wanted roaming around the kingdom. Monster knights were all soft. There's no way a monster would attack like Undyne did, viciously, bravely, and totally devoid of mercy.

Asriel chimed back in. "If we say that, we'll be grounded for a month. For some reason, Asgore trusts the sushi."

"I got it!" Chara smiled. "He's been stressed right? So we went off to go get some tea stuff!" Asgore would love that excuse if it gave him a chance to sit down and make tea for the family.

"Yeah that works for him, but we still need to make an excuse that Mom will... buy..."

Asriel trailed off mid-sentence when what he was saying caught up to him, and when it did, the silence lingered in between them for what seemed like a lonely eternity. Because there was no way that Mom was gone… right?

"I.. guess we… don't have to worry about that, right? Hehehe…" he finished without any energy behind his words.. Asriel kicked the ground scattering rocks and dust out of sight. Chara tried to speak up, but there really wasn't anything to say to Asriel about the situation. It wasn't to say that Chara forgot that Toriel left, but the very idea seemed so an-an- anathema that it slipped their mind. So contrary that Chara couldn't fathom it.

Asriel scratched the back of his neck with his head held low and his gaze not reaching Chara's. "It can't be that bad can it? Maybe Dad exaggerated about the war. He gets upset over spilling tea for crying out loud!" Asriel asked with his voice low and muttered. He took a breath and took a step closer to Chara. "I mean, maybe the Royal guard would hassle you a bit, but there's no way that they'd actually hurt you. You're ten!"

"Hey, I'm twelve. I think. Maybe." Chara said with forced cheerfulness and smile that was just as fake as Asriel's. It wasn't like the Underground used accurate calendars for them to know their birthday anyway. "Look. Maybe… Maybe we should get Mr. Dad some tea. Not as an excuse but to show we care."

"It can't hurt." Asriel moved to his hand, and he closed his eyes in thought. "I found some gold in my vault of awesomeness-"

"You mean your bank, nerd."

The words were right, but the tone wasn't. Asriel's bit of wordplay didn't ring with any of his ordinary exuberance, and Chara's comeback lacked any of the playful banter that made up their interactions so entertaining. Chara found themselves unconsciously rubbing their arms with uncut fingernails scratching skin with more force than strictly necessary. "Do you think that herb shop is still up?"

"We can check. It's past the main road right? I don't remember."

Chara nodded in response and started walking again. "I think I recall where it is. They should have tea stuff then." Any further comments on their misadventure died on Chara's tongue. All in all, the tone of their adventure shifted in almost an instant, and as much as Chara enjoyed being petty to Undyne, there were more important things to worry about.

Forget what was wrong with Asriel and themselves, what was wrong with the Underground? What was wrong with Mr. Dad? He smiled the same way he always did, but when he thought they weren't looking, he dropped the smile and seemed bent over with the cares of the world. He didn't deserve to be like this. He didn't deserve to be harrassed by bloodthirsty knights either! So if Chara could make him smile a little bit with some tea, maybe their journey to the city had something more important to accomplish than annoying a know-it-all.

Chara grabbed Asriel's hand so that he wouldn't get lost following Chara. And if Chara squeezed that hand a little tighter than necessary? Well, Asriel certainly responded with his own stone-clad wrist, so Chara was just comforting their little brother and nothing more. Leading the way, Chara pushed out of the alley and onto the watching eyes of Monster City.

* * *

Whelp, it was official. Undyne was dead. One hundred percent deceased. Once Asgore actually picked up his stupid phone, she was going to die. Asgore was going to gently scold her which was more or less the equivalent of him straight up stabbing her heart. Her career was ruined all because she left her eyes off two brats for a whole five minutes!

One might think that two children with only a five minute head start would be easy to catch up with. Undyne regularly ran as a part of her conditioning for guard training, and not only was she physically fit, she didn't have piles of armor dragging her down seeing as she wore more casual jacket in order to babysit. She should be able to catch up right?

Whoever said that clearly never needed to track down someone through the city. She could tell that they were heading to the city like the bunch of idiots that they were, but once she went past the easy to navigate path from New Home, she was completely lost. There were no more convenient leaf piles to mark their path. Instead, Undyne needed to barge her way through the relatively crowded streets of Monster city.

The artificial lights signaled that it was midday, so not only did Undyne need to try scanning the crowds for two very small people, she also needed to avoid crashing into the various food vendors catering to the lunchtime needs of the underground. She swerved around a light pole holding one of the many cameras and PA systems the Underground had lying around everywhere for public communication then she tiptoed past yet another food cart hoping to make a profit.

Undyne's stomach actually growled in hunger, but since she was busy dying, there wasn't time to stop at any of the stands to grab food. Undyne just needed to barge past the crowds and catch the completely STUPID brats who failed to realize how much danger they were in!

Perhaps most monsters wouldn't recognize a human if they saw one, but there was no way a guard wouldn't immediately jump on the opportunity to save the kingdom. Maybe this situation would be different once Asgore actually got a hold of the tv system to broadcast his children's return, but right now, Undyne was the only thing standing in the way of a very dead human child. Potentially two dead children if Asriel got in the way, but Undyne wasn't ready to comment on what the guard would do with a human sympathizer.

She didn't want to think about it...

So yeah, Undyne was going to die young. She'd never become a captain of the royal guard. She'd never catch a killer human because of her ironic inability to keep a human and goat safe. She'd never find another job. Undyne would never marry Alphys in a awesome anime-style ceremony where the two would hold hands and kiss. She'd never kiss Alphys on the lips a the end of a beuaghtiful ceremony...

 _S_ omeone accidentally shoved into Undyne, and as a consequence, made her lose her balance. Undyne stumbled forward with arms braced for a fall but instead stumbled into one of the lighting poles. Now these things were made tough, but it's important to remember that Undyne could bench press solid rock.

As a consequence?

 _ **CRACK!**_ _!_

Undyne winced as one of the lower hanging cameras came toppling down and crack against the street pavement. The sound drew the curious gazes of everyone in the street towards Undyne, but Undyne had eyes only for the idiot that bumped into her.

"You punk!"

Undyne took a breath when she actually got a look at her attacker, a short skeleton wearing the uniform of one of the food carts, a beige apron and awkward hat for sanitation purposes which made no sense since skeletons didn't have hair. Undyne's vein twitches in irritation and recognition because while he wasn't wearing his blue hoodie, Undyne recognized his sorry butt the moment he shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth.

"Huh, well that was unexpected. Sorry there, didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. Or scales if you know I mean." Sans the look-out in training and current second biggest problem in Undyne's life spoke up. Undyne didn't recognize him at first since he was dressed in food service clothes, but right now she really didn't care what Sans did in his free time.

"Sans, you piece of human garbage! You made me break the camera!" As if Undyne didn't have bigger problems to deal with!

"I did? Guess I should have been more into focus. Don't worry I get the picture now." While the words sounded confident, his eyes were darting back and forth between the smashed camera lying on the ground and Undyne in abject terror.

Undyne didn't pay him any mind and instead leaned down to pick up the mangled remains of the camera. It was probably an older model like the surveillance cameras installed a whole ton of years ago by the last Royal scientist. The camera's screen looked completely cracked and unusable and basically doing its best to add to Undyne's problems. She didn't have time for this! She needed to track down the darn human, but it was like looking for a specific snail amidst Napstablook's entire farm of the slithery gastropods!

Undyne winced at a sharp pain in her hand. In her anger, she'd been unconsciously crushing the camera in her hand. Now her hand was spilling dust over the surveillance camera…

Surveillance camera. Kinda like the ones used by the Royal Scientist.

Kinda like the job Alphys just started...

Undyne smiled. Slowly at first, but her teeth emerged like an ancient predator of the surface world that just caught the trail of its prey. She started laughing too once the reality of what she was holding sunk in. Big, booming, and slightly intimidating laughs. Next to her Sans gulped. "Uhhh I guess I can pay for that Undyne. It's my fault!"

Sans raised his hand in the air which made a part of Undyne realize that she'd been slowly crushing the camera in hand while staring straight at Sans with what was probably death in her eyes. The fact that the notorious cheapskate was offering to pay for repairs really told Undyne how she looked at the moment, but Undyne was too riddled with exhilaration and bloodlust to care at that moment.

"Sans, you're a genius."

"Excuse me?"

That comment threw Sans off guard, But Undyne paid the sentry in training no mind and instead started digging through her clothes for her phone with one hand while the other still crushed the camera in what now was joy. Bloodthirsty joy! Who said that Undyne needed to track down a human in a city when there was a perfectly good surveillance system already in place.

And guess who held the keys...

"ALPHYS I NEED HELP!"

* * *

 **Poor Sans. He wasn't supposed to show up here according to my original draft. All he wanted to do was work a second job. Two jobs means twice as many union-regulated breaks after all!**


	8. In Which The Gang Gains a Friend

Not to say that Undyne didn't have the situation under control, but she stopped counting on anything remotely resembling good luck hours ago.

"What do you mean the cameras aren't working?"

Over the phone, Undyne heard the crinkle of papers and the beeping of strange technological things that Alphys was heroically sciencing with for the good of monsterkind. **(Really Alphys was just opening a pack of ramen and turning on the microwave, but Undyne would never know).**

After Undyne's question, the noises stopped all at once. Alphys stuttered out "Some of this equipment hasn't been used in years! And… and it's a mess in here! I don't think the computer even works."

"Dang it!" Undyne wanted to scream but instead compromised by slamming her fist against the nearby wall of a building. How was she supposed to catch Chara and Asriel now? They could be anywhere from the alley one street over to almost halfway to Snowdin by now. Undyne let herself collapse into a nearby bench and looked over the empty park she walked to once she started her call. No one was here with Undyne except her failure, so at the very least, she wouldn't be starting a riot if overheard talking about a runaway human.

"I-I can try to get the cameras working. They're supposed to run even without an operator." Alphy's voice called out from the phone with such a quiet sound that Undyne checked her batteries to see if the phone was dying. Nope, it was just how loud Alphys was talking, and judging by her tone, Undyne wouldn't be getting help anytime soon. Still, the fact that she offered to help gave Undyne a little hope in her hopeless situation. A little.

What was she supposed to do? Undyne couldn't ask other monsters questions like she normally would if she was trying to catch a human. After all, the goal was to not cause a pancic. There was a reason she dragged herself to an empty park to call Alphys. Undyne threw all her hopes into the camera system being operational, and like the rest of the day's events, came up short.

"Heh, that look on your face. That's a look that's a mile long. Penny for your thoughts?"

Undyne's neck almost snapped form the whiplash with how fast she turned her head. "How the hell did you get there?"

Undyne would have hit Sans for startling her, but right now, she was more concerned with how he appeared next to her without any warning. More annoying was his audacity to still be wearing his uniform from whatever foodcart he was working at. The beige apron and hairnet combo almost mocked Undyne for her failures by reminding her that she'd be working in fast food too if she even was still alive when things were said and done.

"I took a shortcut." Sans shrugged when he answered Undyne's question then flopped down on the seat on the bench right next to her. He spread his legs out and leaned back. "Nice to see you too."

"Aren't you working?" Undyne's retort was a bit harsher than she meant, fed up as she was with humanity and goats.

Sans didn't even flinch. "Well, this would be my union regulated breaktime if I didn't just lose my job."

Undyne's stomach fell at his statement, but San's expression didn't change. He looked as if the information he was giving was just everyday small talk and not a colossal failure. "Apparently harassing people, as the boss puts it, makes for a bad worker."

Sans's tone seemed joking but almost to a point of forced cheerfulness. Undyne took a breath at just how downtrodden the guy seemed. As much Sans got on her nerves, she didn't want him to lose his job. "Look, maybe... I can pay for the camera. And explain to your boss later."

"Huh, nah I wasn't going to pay for it in the first place. Insurance and all that." Sans grabbed the hair net over his head and crumpled it into a ball. "And I was planning to quit that job anyway."

Great, another thing that Undyne ruined. Sans played it off like she did nothing, but apparently today was just not Undyne's day and probably was her last by the time it was over.

"Look Sans, I'm sorry…" Before she could finish, another voice chimed in.

"Hey Undyne, Is that Sans?" Undyne almost dropped the phone in her hands when she realized that she was still in the middle of a call.

It took a moment after that to register what Alphys said, "You know this clown? I mean… sorry Sans."

"Hey, clowns wish they could tell jokes like I can." Sans took the slight in good grace.

"Of course, I know Sans. Who doesn't?" Alphys chattered through the phone.

"Why don't you put her on speakerphone?" Sans leaned back into the park bench to get more comfortable.

Undyne's finger was already on the button when she remembered the original reason she called Alphys which sadly had nothing to do with confessing her undying love. No,Undyne had different worries like planning her own funeral.

"Well, it's not like we have anything SECRET TO TALK ABOUT, RIGHT ALPHYS?" Undyne subtly communicated.

"Uhhhh… Right! Can't put on speaker phone right now!" Alphys said on speaker phone. "We umm have that secret thing!"

Sans didn't even raise an eyebrow because of how good the two were at talking in code. Or he didn't have an eyebrow to raise, but Undyne prefered to think of the first option as correct.

"Oh, in that case, if you want to talk, I can't hear. I'm too busy staring at this lamp to listen in." Almost in an instant, Sans was halfway across the park and staring into a lamp. Undyne felt a vein twitch near her eye, but Undyne reached her breaking point hours ago. This was a walk in the park.

"So were you able to get the cameras working Alphys?" Undyne still had both her eyes on Sans to make sure he didn't pull his disappearing act again. For a quick moment, Undyne felt hope. That quickly extinguished when Alphys responded.

"Sorry Undyne. I can't make heads or tails of the computer the cameras are hooked up into. Whoever was supposed to clean it did a terrible job, it's like it hasn't been turned on in years."

"Well that's unfortunate. Have you tried pressing the button underneath the desk for the monitor? That seemed to work whenever I was cleaning it."

Undyne didn't flinch. She didn't. One moment, she'd been staring at Sans to make sure the hooligan didn't disappear, and the next moment, he was sitting right next to her with the same annoying smile.

"Hey it's working!" Alphy's cry of joy convinced Undyne to hold off on suffocating Sans. Undyne settled for just glaring at Sans.

"Whenever you were cleaning it, huh?"

Undyne raised an eye and asked Sans who shrugged in defeat. "Cleaning gig. Pays well since Papyrus is still trying to find a good career to latch onto."

"Who's Papyrus?"

Before Sans could answer, Alphys's voice triumphantly called out across the phone "I found the human! They went into that new flower shop! The one with the fake sun…." Undyne heard Alphys swallow and for a moment, the line went silent when Alphys realized how loud she was.

. "Wait I mean, not a human. Definitely not a human! That would be ridiculous!"

Too late though. Sans was still right next to Undyne and the phone, so he could hear everything. Now Undyne thought nothing could wipe that smile off his face, but for the briefest moment, Undyne could have sworn Sans's eyes changed to some dark facade of a soul.

Then, all too soon, it was back to that grinning leer. "Soooo a human?"

Undyne hit her head with her palm and the impact seemed to shake her out of the illusion. Over the phone, Alphys was still trying for damage control.

"Uhhhhhh nothing! There's no human, right Undyne? Nothing suspicious going on here in any way"

Undyne looked into San's eyes for one more second. Two white pinpricks of light stared back, leaving Undyne alone with nothing but a slight pain in her heart.

A guilty consciousness perhaps?

Undyne had been pretty horrible to him, hadn't she? Sure she needed to take her anger out, but there was no call for ruining the guy's job. Maybe it was a bad decision, but something in Undyne's gut told her that the fragile idea forming in the back of her mind was right. Besides maybe if things went right, she could make it up to the guy.

"How do I find the brats Alphys?"

"Undyne are you sure we should be talking about this right next to…"

"I'm switching to a video call. It's best if we both explain things." Undyne didn't break eye contact with Sans who simply stood still. Any other day, Undyne might have mistook that as laziness. Today though? She knew what it was like to be sprung into a like a viper in a coil, ready to pounce.

Undyne stretched out her hand to Sans. "Come on Sans. Ready to join in the hell?" The least she could do was confess everything.

Sans paused for a moment. Perhaps he sensed this wasn't a time to be joking around because he made no snide comment as he leaned over and shook her hand….

FWOOOOSH...

Undyne's eye twitched as the whoopie cushion in his hand went off. Sans, on the other hand, didn't blink even as Undyne pushed down on the hand with a bone-shattering grip. Figuratively of course, even if she could already tell that her migraine was just about to get worse.

"So, Sans" Alphys interrupted the lingering moment of silence. "About the human…"

* * *

If anything could be said about today, then Asgore's phone chose the worst time to start ringing. Asgore bit his tongue to stop himself from saying anything at the sight of any entire room full of monsters glaring at him. The phone continued ringing, and Asgore did his best to take the phone out which is more difficult when one realizes that his hand eclipsed the phone's size by several times over.

"Just end the call Asgore." Councilor Look-at-Me rolled his eyes.

"Umm how do I do that again?" Asgore tried not to sound too defeated and even tried pressing one of the buttons on the phone. All that did was turn the volume up. "Are you sure I can't take this call?" Asgore asked because that was something he could do. Switching his phone to silent was just a little outside his range of expertise.

What? In his defense, he was alive when a computer filled an entire room and the telegram was considered the pinnacle of technology. Before that even!

Lionbrow sighed and abandoned his normal military posture to sink into his seat. 'I could stand for a break. We've been talking for hours now without any real substance. One might think the upcoming ball be somewhat a lesser concern than the issue at present, yet we seem to be returning to the topic." His eyes narrowed towards Councilor Look-at-Me, who was the chief offender in this case. "I understand it's a sensitive subject but... why is that phone still ringing?"

Indeed, to Asgore's chagrin, Lionbrow's protest reminded the king that his phone continued ringing. In a desperate attempt to stop it, Asgore hit answer call.

"Hey…" a young voice, probably male, asked. "Is your refrigerator running?"

"I'm sorry sir, I don't have a refrigerator here."

For some reason, that caused groans from the rest of the room. Still the other line went dead, so Asgore hung up his end. "I believe we were discussing-"

The phone started ringing again.

"Just give it to me!" Councilor Look-At-Me grabbed the phone from Asgore's hands and fiddled with the buttons for a few seconds. "Everyone else, switch your phone off. I swear, you are as bad as my students. You know what? Hand them over!" Look-at-Me took the time to stand up and collect everyone's phones, including Gerson who handed his over with only a slight grumble. Perhaps he sensed the attitude of the room.

The councilor wasn't the only one who seemed tense. At first Asgore simply thought it was due to the stress of the situation, but the past hour had been filled with snapped remarks and shouting without even being close to breaching the main topic of the meeting, namely humanity. Even Asgore felt the effects of the tension, but rather than draw him into anger, it simply exhausted him. He hadn't felt this drained since before his children returned.

Perhaps his mood had been lightened like never before and he was simply returning from the high of emotion his chance for forgiveness gave him. Perhaps now that he no longer orbited over his returned children like the moon once did over monsterkind's nights, he could clearly see the miracle of life offered before him. In short, though, Asgore was sounder in mind than most of the monsters before him, who still stood shell shocked at the violation of the universe's laws of time, space, and reason.

Asgore was about to recommend taking a reprieve so that he could take a quick walk back home to check in on Undyne while the others took a moment to compose themselves. He actually moved to stand up and use royal privilege to refuse any naysayers, but before he could stand to his feet, Lionbrow beat him to the punch.

"We've been dancing around this issue long enough with all this circular talk on policy and acquiring the PA system. We've debated the merits of the royal ball while completely ignoring the real problem. I say why don't we cut to the heart of the matter. No more pointed words or secret conferences Councillor. Why don't we just ask the king directly." Lionbrow asked.

Secret conferences? Asgore wasn't aware of any secret… oh.

Asgore, no matter how much he loved gardening, was no fool. He was the one they were discussing weren't they, and Asgore could quiet well imagine the topic. The nervous glances to their phones throughout the reason suddenly made sense to the King.

Lionbrow's tail was switching back and forth in a nervous tell that the lion failed to eliminate, and Councilor Look-At-Me stopped looking Asgore in the eyes. Even Gerson shifted in his fold-out camping chair which seemed out of character for the old turtle. It all painted a picture of nervousness that either wasn't there before, or more likely, never pressured to reveal itself before the king.

Almost in an instant, the conference shifted itself to what was akin to a court of law, with the judging faces of the councilors gazing at Asgore like someone who was at once harmless and the most dangerous one present. Any light left in their eyes that shone with mirth now quenched that elusive shine, and their bodies no longer slung relaxed or held themselves in a mode of play.

So did Asgore, the defendant, return to a mask all too familiar to him. The mask of guilt, despair, and the weight of everyone's hopes and dreams on his shoulders. Before the jury of his peers and trusted allies, the king under the mountain cast aside the memory of his forgiveness and forged forward into war.

Prosecutor Lionbrow began the questioning."Who's guarding the human now?"

"I have Undyne watching both my children."

Lionbrow's brows furrowed in surprise. "I do hope you know what you're doing then. She hates humanity."

"I trust her."

Look- At-Me scowled to himself. "She's currently not a royal guard."

It said much about the tension Asgore once strove to ignore that Lionbrow and the Councilor immediately jumped on one another's moment of weakness. Captain Lionbrow now turned to Look-At-Me and scowled. "She's more of a guard than every last one of mine. If Asgore wasn't training her, she'd already be a guard."

"I never meant to insult the girl, only state facts." Look-at-Me coughed past his swollen throat and seasonal illness. Then almost as an afterthought, he added. "As if your testimony matters at this point anyway. We all know Asgore's replacing you."

Well this was the first Asgore had heard of that argument. The king, still polite to a fault, only asked "Excuse me?" He went ignored save a wary glance from Gerson who, alone amongst the room, seemed unaffected by the shift in mood. If you could read into the little gestures of an old turtle, you would see that wasn't the truth, but only years of knowing Gerson Boom's habits let Asgore know that the turtle was worried too.

Meanwhile, Asgore could tell that Lionbrow and Look-At-Me seemed to have forgotten the purpose of the meeting. Asgore's eyes narrowed. Unless this was a purpose of the meeting he'd never been told. The two were at odds yes, but their arguments seemed almost… practiced.

Lionbrow remained in his seat, but his tail swung back and forth with an ever increasing ferocity. "I am not being replaced any more than you are professor! Or do you think that once the rest of the council seats are filled, your voice will be censored? Does that hurt you?

"Lionbrow I believe-" Asgore began but he was interrupted again by Look-at-Me who rolled his one eye.

"Yes,yes. I'm sure once young Alphys joins us, my voice will be weaker than ever. You insist. He's not replacing you. Is that why you've insisted that the other captains can't come to play ball? So that you are still relevant?"

Asgore couldn't help but notice the look that crossed Lionbrow's face, but words would do it a disservice. Asgore felt only the bite of disappointment in his heart.

Look-at-Me held up his hand clutching a phone. Lionbrow's phone in fact. Perhaps seizing the phones wasn't as much a spontaneous decision that Asgore first thought.

"Visiting relatives, running patrols. Logical explanations if they weren't false. You act like you are the only voice here due to unforeseen circumstances, yet I know for a fact that you failed to text Superior Dog or Astigmatism!"

"What did you do Lionbrow?" Now a trickle of emotion slipped past Asgore, but it wasn't anger. Just more disappointment.

On the other hand, Look-at-Me wasn't satisfied with the wrath his biting wit had wrought. "You speak of Undyne? Well despite your words of encouragement, it's not surprising that she's the one to be replacing you."

"That's enough." Still with an even tone, Asgore stood up. Both Lionbrow and Look-At-Me bowed their heads. "Heated words have no place here. When I promote Undyne to Captain will be my decision and not the topic of this meeting.

Lionbrow raised his head at that despite the stare it brought him. "You said… when." He sounded like one who suddenly needed to face an idea that he'd been ignoring for quiet a long time. Asgore knew the feeling well.

"You know…:" Gerson began. "I reckon some time outside might do a lot of us good. Take a walk or a nap." Geroson, bless his soul, winked dramatically, stretched his arms out, and sunk into both his chair and the shell on his back. "Tensions seem to be running far too high in here to do anything but sleep!"

"Yet the talks must continue. The human child is still an issue." Look-At-Me pointed out, "I'll stop pressing Lionbrow if we return to that."

Asgore shook his head. "I don not think that wise. I think we should wait for Superior Dog and Astigmatism before we continue." And went unsaid was check in on Undyne. Maybe that way, the bitter coil in his gut would subside before he needed to face the council again.

Guard Captain LionBrow tail wrapped around his leg. "I'm fine with continuing." he answered quickly. Perhaps too quickly in Asgore's opinion.

"That's not the best idea."

"We need to continue." Lionbrow's tail wrapped even tighter around his leg. "We need to discuss how the event could have happened. What to do next! Besides, the question remains whether or not you should harvest the human soul."

At that point any semblance of unity was completely destroyed.

"Now how do you younglings go off suggesting things like that!" Gerson leapt up from his chair with an agility that seemed to defy his appearance if one ignore the fire practically burning in his eye. . "How can you speak after all this backstabbing and backtalk?"

"I'm speaking options." Lionbrow sounded almost offended by the fact Gerson interrupted him. "We've put that matter to rest and moved forward. We need to discuss this."

Try as he might, Asgore couldn't work up the courage to raise his head. No that wasn't right. It wasn't courage, it was pure fury that struck Asgore just then. A hot feeling in his stomach and what remained of his heart. Slowly, enunciating every word, Asgore only said, "Chara is my child."

"And a member of a race that that killed every guardsmen in Snowden! Do you think the other captains can pick up the slack? They can't! You should know! You're planning our replacement!" Lionbrow took a step forward. His hands were shaking with rage.

Look-At-Me's eye fixed its gaze on Lionbrow. "Is that what you care about here? Power? The council is a suggestion nothing more. The guard a shield and not a sword. You'll find no power here."

Lionbrow threw out his hand to point an accusing finger at the Councilor. "You lecture me about power! There is no power here, only the dust of the fallen. The only reason any three of us captains have the chair is because the dust. The only reason I accuse the King of negligence and cowardice! This isn't about power this is about the hopes and dreams of monster kind!"

Asfore remained silent. His only move was to fold his hands together in front of him. Bereft of the interruption he no doubt expected, Lionbrow paused. Only birdsong penetrated the silence that had formed and the steady thumming and drumming and humming of the barrier behind the King's throne. The barrier was faint yes, but so was the reasoning for their exile. Fainter than the silence for the falling and the silence for the fallen.

Lionbrow let the silence ring one last moment longer.

"Humanity has fallen twice. The first...beast!" he spat out with venom. "Bravely slaughtered every monster in its path. A dozen guards, countless innocents. Oh, you have Undyne on duty? Does someone's parents ring a bell? Now you have her guard one of the species that made her an orphan!"

Asgore still said nothing. He saw Gerson turn around in his chair so that he no longer faced Lionbrow's face. Lionbrow could only see the turtle's back, a visual protest to his words that Asgore's silence reinforced. If anything, this wordless display infuriated the Captain even more.

"You could have taken the first soul that fell and freed us! How many souls will you put at risk? Why don't you absorb the souls now?"

"Lionbrow, that's enough." Councilor Look-at-Me said. "We've discussed this before."

The councilor continued bickering, but Asgore couldn't hear him. His eyes were on Lionbrow's but it was not the lion's scolding eyes that he saw. Like a memory made intangible, the sight of a bickering, feuding… grieving council struck a chord in his soul. He knew what it was like to feel distrust and anger. Asgore's face still stung in the dark of the night where Tori… Toriel once slapped him. He felt her words echo even as he stood up from his throne.

" _Murderer."_

Negligence? Cowardinace?

Asgore was well acquainted with these things, but it was never true. No, Asgore knew what being powerless felt like.

Two children. His two children for two of theirs. The extent of Asgore's crime never really occurred to Asgore until a few days ago.

Now poor Gerson, who never loved politics, stood on his feet and moved to break the two feuding council members apart. Gerson left the council for a reason after all. In itself, the institution was meaningless. The king still held power. Anything given could be taken back, yet monsters still clung to that power all the same.

Two for two. Was that the depth of Asgore's rage or was it the climax of his sorrow? To war, or not to war? Well that was the question wasn't it? A question only one person could face. A crime that only one could atone for. A task for the King alone to deal with.

So did the King rise and depart without a glance behind him.

He never heard the cries of protest.

He never heard the arguments that broke the council after.

He didn't hear his phone ringing with the ringtone of one familiar fish, desperate to help someone she might have called a father.

Thus was the way of the lonely king.

* * *

 **So how about Deltarune? I think it's fun.  
**

 **In case you are wondering, the monster that called Asgore about the refrigerator is clearly Dr. Meme Dings.**


	9. In Which Undyne Doesn't Show Up In Time

Little did Asriel think that today would take such a turn that it did, yet nevertheless, here he was in a technologically advanced greenhouse looking at boxes of tea. The future was weird.

"Hey Chara, do you think dad will want pollen tea? That sounds cool."

Asriel held up the packet of tea in his hands, but Chara only raised their eyebrows, shook their head, and went back to silently browsing the selection of tea bags. Asriel put his tea packet back on the center of the greenhouse's display.

Asriel took a look behind his shoulder to look at what had to be the strangest shop he'd ever seen or perhaps that was just the time travel shenanigans talking. Since growing things Underground was difficult for obvious reasons, real surface plants were hard to find to make tea with. This place though, well it was the first place Asriel really felt telling him that he was in the future. For one, the little shop that Asriel and Chara used to visit was completely gone, and in its place, stood a greenhouse like the ones in his books.

Which was awesome!

Asriel wiped his brow with his hands. Being furry in a greenhouse wasn't something he was too thrilled about even if the benefits outweighed the pain. The greenhouse was necessary seeing as there really wasn't any actual sun in the underground to grow plants. This place solved that problem in what had to be the coolest way possible. They built their own sun! Or at least, there was some kind of magic that made things warm. Still, it was really cool. The monsters here had tons of cool future technology that let the greenhouse complete photosynthesis. One could almost lie down here and let the faux sun do its work for hours…

But Asriel wasn't a plant, so he had no intention of staying here any longer than necessary. Luckily this place actually made tea from whatever plants the monsters had been able to find. Sometimes wind would blow seeds into the underground cavern which could be used to plant flowers or sometimes even food which could be made magical through, well magic. Occasionally, it even be used for things like tea since a certain monarch loved it which was why Asriel found himself spending the first real free time here instead of on an adventure.

Asriel went back to browsing the tea bags on the plastic shelf. He took a moment to admire one of the many drinking mugs on display next to their tea stuff. There was one with a picture of a cat hanging from a curtain by its claws that Chara would probably appreciate, so Asriel made the mental note to come back without his sibling.

The greenhouse was quiet seeing as Chara and himself were the only customers. Up front, there was a monster that looked like a yellow-scaled lizard sleeping at the front desk, but for all intents and purposes, the two children were free to browse for something cool to give to their father. Only one problem remained. What to give to Asgore?

"How about… ummm purple prim prose? Wait, I mean primrose."

Chara shook their head. "Again, anything alliterative acts anti-applicable for Asgore."

Asriel nodded then moved put the packet back, though he stilled his hand when he processed what Chara actually said. "That's not funny, you know that right? I don't even think anti-applicable is a word."

Chara shrugged. "You feel like it could be worse. It could have been a pun."

"Narrating in second person isn't funny either." Asriel bumped against their shoulder. "I think you need to take classes on how to tell real jokes."

Chara narrowed their eyes. "So you're saying that I need to be schooled?"

Asriel gained the inexplicable urge to shove his head against the wall. Was that the goat in him talking? "Please don't pun."

Any further banter was interrupted when the bell hooked up to the store's door rang. The lizard at the front desk reluctantly shook himself awake and called out to the entire greenhouse including the eavesdropping Prince. "Is that you Astigmatism?"

"Astigmatism Senior!" The part of Asriel that wasn't trying to discover what brand of tea would make an acceptable gift noticed that a monster with a single bloodshot eye entered the greenhouse. While his attention was solely focused on the lizard attendant up front, Asriel still took a step to be behind the tea display. All the better to eavesdrop- dang it Chara! Now he was punning in his own head!

The monster named Senior, whatever his name was, walked up to the counter and slammed his hands down. "We've been over this LK! I won't have you picking on me or my son!"

"I had no intention of making fun of him. And it's LT now, you know that. Wait a minute though. Isn't your son named Look? I thought he hasn't evolved yet." The poor attendant sounded exasperated instead of confused like this line of questioning was an old one.

"We're not pocket monsters or whatever you kids call it." Astigmatism was a big monster certainly. Not as big as Asgore but certainly bigger than the poor store attendant or Asriel for that matter.

"You know I have a kid too right? I'm not some teenager."

"Apologize Lizard Teen!" He pointed a finger at LT and shook it.

"It's Lesser Tornado or LT get it right..."

Asriel really didn't think that this was something to get so worked up about, but Astigmatism glared at the poor shopkeep until the attendant felt pressured enough to apologize. Their conversation dropped off to a point where Asriel really needed to strain his heart to continue listening too, but for once, Asriel really wasn't curious about something new. What was the eyeball's problem?

 **(What an idiot. Bossing people around like he ever had real power).**

Asriel tuned the voice out like he'd been doing for a few days now. Instead, Asriel shoved Chara's shoulder and pointed. 'What's his problem?"

Chara looked stunned for a moment. "I… think he's being rude. But monsters aren't rude like that. Except Undyne maybe but she's an exception. She has to be. She's young and crazy."

Uhhhhh…

Asriel nodded and smiled but really didn't have the heart to tell his only friend about how monsters could be when the adults weren't looking. For all Chara knew about the surface world and how the world worked, he didn't really want to tell Chara they were wrong now.

 **(Golly, it's like they artificially built up the reputation of one group after being forgotten by another).**

Sure, most monsters were nice, but some weren't. Kids were mean. When the adults weren't looking, they could be downright nasty. Teasing, name calling, harassment. Bullies were probably the same on the surface which boggled Asriel's mind. If you could see the sun, why would you bother on trying to stop someone else from seeing it? If you were just a lonely kid, why would you tease and harass someone who'd been too shelterted to be schooled by anyone but his mother?

 **(We showed them though. We had fun!)**

Did Chara ever come across any nasty monsters? They had to. They chased off those kids that didn't like him by sheer presence… oh. Maybe Chara never really came across harsh monsters. But they had to. Chara didn't live in a vacuum, they met at least one nosy scientist. It wasn't like they just forgot about it.

Right?

Chara's hand on Asriel's shirt reminded him that he was supposed to be looking at tea instead of staring at some monster that liked throwing his weight around. Still, something seemed to be at the tip of Asriel's tongue. Something strange. A bad feeling that accompanied the voice he unconsciously chose to ignore.

Chara's hand squeezed his arm, pulling him back to the present. "Look Azzy! Chocolate tea!"

"No." Asriel didn't even need to look at Chara to shoot down that terrible idea. One could make the argument that Asriel was a sheltered boy that would agree to anything his sibling suggested. Another might suggest that such a habit would be the death of him. Apparently, it was in some strange time powery way. The line had to be drawn though. The pillars of society needed to be tossed aside when the injustice became too much to bear.

Chara crossed their arms so that the arms covered the green stripe on their chest. "Hey, it's chocolate!"

"And you'll drink it before we even give it to Dad!"

"Will not."

Asriel stuck a finger out. "Dad's birthday." He stuck a second finger up. "My birthday." His third finger joined the other indignant symbols. "The time you ate a whole pie."

"That was butterscotch not chocolate." Chara grumbled but put the pack of tea down… wait did they slip it under their sweater? Nah, that would be-

 **(Completely in character).**

Asriel grabbed one of the full boxes of blends he'd been eyeing before being distracted. This one had a warm fireplace and blankets painted on the sides which were two points towards Asgore loving it. "What about chamomile?"

"Dunderhead" Chara shoved Asriel's shoulder just a little bit, enough to rock him in place. "Do you want Mr. Dad to fall asleep when we give him his present?"

"Just because you know more about flowers," Asriel muttered under his breath but listened to Chara because they were the one that liked gardening and all that fun stuff.

Asriel went back to reading the backs of boxes, but he wasn't at it for long before Chara, in half way between a shout of exclamation and astounded laughter, cried out. "No way Asriel!"

From behind the display, Asriel could tell that Chara's shout drew the eyes of the two monsters talking up front towards their spot, but Asriel found himself speechless when he saw the smile on Chara's face.

"What is it?"

It was hard to make out with Chara waving the box clutched in their hand all around with a smile that only rarely could be seen gracing the human's face.

"Golden flower tea. Just like on the surface!" Infectious. That was what their smile was. Asriel couldn't help but beam too.

Chara started shaking, not with terror but excitement. "Maybe a bird dropped it in or something. I... do you think they have the flowers here? They have to! They have tea!" Something wistful and hopeful formed in their smile. Chara started peering around to see if there were any golden flowers in the greenhouse.

No such flowers were in sight despite the large number of red and purple and blue flowers of other species that graced the special store, but that didn't put a damper on Chara's excitement. Perhaps being happy was like a bottled drink. Once you uncorked it, the only way to get the air bubble back in was through black magic.

'Let's give Dad this!"

"Does it make good tea?" Asriel looked a little closer at the tea package in Chara's hand. There was some writing on it for preparation in a handwriting that seemed a little familiar, however Asriel couldn't read it since Chara was waving it around in their hands too fast to eye it.

Chara shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe? We're getting this through!" Their tone brokered no arguments, and even if Asriel had a better idea for a gift, he wouldn't suggest it and wipe away that smile Chara was giving him.

The two started making their way to the counter. Asriel started pulling out his vault of supreme power and magical coins despite the fact that something still seemed just a little strange here.

The old monster that had been arguing with the shopkeep now was leaning against the wall. For the first time, Asriel was able to get a good glimpse of him. It wasn't anything he wore but more so the way he carried himself. The way he had wary eyes on Chara like he expected something to jump out. He'd seen something like that before, but where?

 **(I don't like this…)**

Walking with just a bit of a bounce in their step, Chara approached the counter which lay in state of mess that it hadn't when they first walked in. Different packages of flower seeds were torn open and scattered. The displays of price were overturned and even a vase of roses was lying on its side. For some reason, the attendant hadn't picked it up yet. In fact, the attendant leaned backwards just a little bit when Chara reached the checkout.

"You there!" Not the attendant, but Astigmatism made the call, not budging from his spot on the wall.

"Huh mister?" Chara's hands were still gripped on that box of teabags, but Asriel's sibling turned to face the one-eyed monster on the wall. "Howdy partner." They waved. Chara's smile still beamed out even at the monster they'd been horrified of about only a minute before. After what Chara told Asriel about golden flowers on the service, Asriel would be surprised if the smile didn't drop off for at least an hour. Maybe more.

Astigmatism waved at the two children to come towards him , but his singular eye was on Chara. Monsters were different sure. Not all Astigmatism were nasty. Not all Looks gained enough magical power to be called eye-sores. But Astigmatism Senior? Something seemed… familiar.

"Are you aware of where you are?" An element of Astigmatism tone picked at the back of Asriel's mind. Was the monster moving a little closer than necessary? Indeed, this Astigmatism moved closer to Chara after his words, and the feeling didn't dispel when the monster simply raised his hand to shake instead of some nefarious purpose.

Speaking of handshakes, why were Asriel's hands shaking? How long had they been doing that?

"Are you alright there, sir knight?" Chara didn't even hesitate to grab the monster's hand which was more a sign of the end than anything else. Sure, flowers were cool and all but Chara's guard was down, and they were smiling in a way that wasn't that sarcastically grim grin Asriel was all too familiar with. Chra must be having a really good day...

Wait, sir knight?

 **(I forgot I was a moron. He had the sword the whole time!).**

There was a sword strapped to Astigmatism back that Asriel hadn't been able to see before. Not to mention, the monster stood with the ease of one used to battles. Kinda like Undyne from before but more confident in that regards.

Oh gosh. Things made sense now, but Asriel didn't have to like this logical chain. Astigmatism was part of the royal guard which meant he probably knew what a human was. He was even avoiding Asriel's gaze, like he didn't even register at all to the guard in the face of the bigger threat.

Well, things couldn't go too wrong could they? Chara wasn't a soldier. They were like ten or whatever number they admitted last time someone asked. Surely, The two kids would only be dragged back to the castle or their home right? Dad would never advocate this. Even now, Chara was simply smiling in a way that couldn't be construed as threatening unlike the usual smiles that were meant to intimidate. Everything would be fine.

The voice in the back of his head remained silent. Like the calm before a storm.

Astigmatism Senior chuckled to himself and answered Chara's question with a nod. Considering most of his body was his head, it made for a strange sight. "Am I alright? I've been better."

Chara nodded back. Asriel really had never seen his sibling with their guard down in public before. Maybe in the dark of the night, with their arms clutched around a blanket and Mom or Dad sleeping next to them, Chara would drop their guard. Maybe when Chara was reenacting the god of hyperdeath in the privacy of New Home would their guard drop. In public, never!

Chara must be really happy to have found those flowers.

Astigmatism waited a moment before continuing. "You know, I think something's purposely messing with me today. I was just thinking this day couldn't get any worse, but I'm just staring at the world trying to prove me wrong."

 _ **SCA-RATCH**_ _!_

Astigmatism backhanded Chara with enough force to slam them into the counter.

The world paused. In one moment, existence distorted itself. Asriel couldn't forget the look of pain on his best friend's face or censor the sight of crimson blood forcing itself up. Even if he lived another thousand years past this, he would never forget the sight before his eyes.

Chara slumped against the counter.

( **Kill him! Kill him now!)**

And for the first time, Asriel listened.

* * *

Chara didn't feel so well. Being backhanded into the counter really did contribute to such a thing. Actually, forget not feeling so well. Chara coughed and to their mild horror, spit out something red. The world went black and green. Quite literally in fact as they felt a presence right next to their heart that forcibly dragged it out their chest. Their soul pulsed against the cruel world which now reflected the magic being used on their pitiful selves.

The box of golden flower tea slipped out of their numb hand.

"You... hit me?"

"Humans really are tough. That was a betrayal kill. I'll aim for your soul next." Astigmatism's words were without any emotion or perhaps Chara was still numb. The monster in front of them reached for their sword and drew it.

The scraping of steel finally jolted Chara out of their stupor. With a trembling hand, they went for their gardening knife.

 **(Dust. Dust Everywhere. Their partner was practically caked in it)**

W-what?

From behind though, something wrapped around Chara's arm. Their hand was on their knife, but Chara found it too difficult to even breathe much less draw steel with a tail grabbing their shoulders. Memories of arms against their shoulders. Bleeding. These days were supposed to be over.

They were supposed to be safe.

"LK it's dangerous. Get back!" Astigmatism called out without breaking his gaze on Chara. His blade slid halfway out of its scabbard but he remained as frozen as Chara.

The attendant only wrapped his tail tighter around Chara's arm. "I have them! I'm helping! Besides it's LT now!"

"It can kill you in an instant! Move." Astigmatism still didn't move from his spot, perhaps in fear that... It would kill the poor attendant.

It. Chara was It. Was Astigmatism afraid for LT? That stupid kid holding onto something he didn't quite get?

 **(Yo! Y-you b-better st-stop r-right where you are...)**

Their stalemate lasted only a second, but a second that never seemed to end. Unable to move, unable to stop LT's tail from wrapping around their arm, Chara could only watch their artificial reality crumble in front of them.

Chara was a kid. They were a kid! How could they? Monsters were supposed to be better!

"Get off them!" A snarl from the sidelines signaled the end of the all too brief stalemate. Asriel slammed into Astigmatism. Their hands started clawing at Astigmatism skin, and while Astigmatism was a decently strong and well built monster, Asriel had the element of surprise on his side.

"Kid that's a human there!"

Asriel only scratched harder and Chara couldn't move. They should be able to move, Why couldn't they? The encounter couldn't last forever, and unfortunately, Asriel was as ten-ish as Chara.

In a way that first confrontation with Undyne was repeated, Astigmatism threw Asriel off him and sent him careening to the ground. This occasion, though, was more violent. Asriel hit the ground with more force. Astigmatism gaze turned to Chara, completely disregarding their best friend lying on the ground. Broken like a pile of dust...

Chara finally moved.

Their hand finally pulled their dagger out and they brandished it against LT. LT's tail grip immediately unwrapped itself from the arm when the monster saw the knife and he jumped back from Chara. But not far enough.

"Get down kid!" Astigmatism came barreling through with his sword in an arc amplified by a white arc of magic. His intent to help LT couldn't be clearer. Chara ducked underneath the magical slash and brought their own knife up to that kid that still looked so eager to help. So resolute in his willingness to kill a child. So deliriously happy to trample on all of Chara's truths of the world.

Chara struck LT with their knife and all their hate.

 **(In my way...)**

"No, they didn't…."

Chara struck at LT! They struck at Astigmatism who was too distracted with keeping the teenager. They killed them! They dusted them in front of them! They hated these hypocrites! Chara hated them! Hated them!

 **(Looks like free exp...)**

"No, they didn't", the voice that sounded so much like Chara's responded. Able to be heard only by the shaking child. A reality that came apart at the tiles and separated every aspect of their being. On one shoulder, a gaping void loomed over them. Poised to consume everything. On the other, an equally terrifying sight of the world in numbers. Life's arranged in a mess of number that couldn't represent any of the subtleties.

Chara killed them! Chara avenged Asriel!

"No…" The voice whispered. Their voice, in fact. And in a way, things started to make sense again.

They… They…

Didn't.

Then, the world rebooted itself.

Chara's migraine pounded. Where the headache came from no one knows. It never happened to Chara, so they could never remember such a thing.

What Chara did do was duck underneath the arc of magical energy that Astigmatism sent flying. Almost thoughtlessly, the child ducked to the floor and let Astigmatism carry his charge straight into the countertop. His sword bit into the wood like hungry teeth. Astigmatism lost a precious second of his life trying to yank it out.

A second can be a long time.

But, Chara felt a hand grab their shoulder against their will, and they froze. Again, they froze in place with their numb hands around their knife. Just barely able to turn around and try to lash out-

But it was only Asriel. Not dusted. Why would he be? Just Asriel. Always just little Asriel. Chara felt their grip loosen.

But his snarl and the patterns on his face weren't Asriel. Green and yellow cords seemed to sink into Asriel's fur only to merge with a strange glow of power.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" Asriel raised their hands, and the greenhouse itself answered. The flowers and plants that Chara could idly identify with the part of their sanity that still remained, all rose to Asriel's command. Vines crawled across the room, arcing over the flower and tea displays or knocking the aside as they converged on the two monsters still at the aisle checkout.

Astigmatism's eye went wide but he was powerless to stop the thorns from piercing the wood and chaining his limbs to the deks. LT tried biting down on one only to wince, the vine circling him with a new vigor that looked like they were almost alive...

"Run." Asriel's voice was lower, from the strain of the effort but also the weird glowing… vines? Chara could see that the symbols weren't symbols at all, but rather, vines of all sorts of sickly colors protruding from their skin.

"They hurt you." Chara couldn't help but be drawn to the injuries. Only after the words left Chara's mouth did they realize that it could be referring to Astigmatism Senior or the vines that were wrapping around Asriel like a parasite.

The vines wrapped tighter. Both around he guards and around Asriel's body. Asriel pointed towards the door with one hand, the other one still glowing with green energy. Asriel couldn't cast green magic.

"Run! I have no idea how long these will hold!"

"How are you doing this?" Green magic? Who even knew green magic that wasn't some weak healing spell? Nobody did! It couldn't not be healthy. This could not be safe.

"I don't know!" Asriel started to blink almost every other second. Then, every second. Chara wanted to grab ahold and shake him out of the trance, but their side still ached from Astigmatism's strike. Asriel gesture wildly to the vines wrapping around their to attackers. "It was supposed to be fire!"

He cried out that last bit a little louder than wise, and certainly not to their advantage. LT's eyes widened even further in a feat that could be labeled impressive when Chara considered they were already freaking out from the vines and were panicking. Well, not panicking anymore.

LT opened his toothy mouth. From his throat, a spark emerged which immediately ignited a burst of fire that turned started to reduce the vines to nothing but charcoal.

 **(Well that's new).**

"Great, he's not a lizard."

Yeah, Chara could sass until it killed them.

Asriel did not share this feeling. "Let's move."

Asriel ran. Chara took a step too, but immediately stumbled back from pain. LT was already halfway free and looking to free Astigmatism, but Chara was in no way equipped to move fast enough to get away.

They had to try though. Grimacing, Chara took a single, determined step forward. Then another. Each step brought a new wave of pain, but Chara was committed now. They took another step forward and fell to the ground.

Almost. Asriel doubled back and was there to catch Chara. He threw Chara's arm over his shoulder so to support both their weights which clued in Chara that he was stumbling too. From magical exhaustion? From being thrown? Didn't matter. Chara winced in pain but took another step anyway.

One thing was clear thought as Chara felt Asriel's arms wrap around them to help them move against the pain and that tightness in their throat. Chara was wrong. The last sight of the greenhouse interior, before the two spilled out into the streets to get away, embedded itself in the back of Chara's mind. A box of golden flower tea lay on the ground, carelessly trampled on the ground during the world's betrayal.

They'd been so happy too. So happy to share it with Mr. Dad. Chara should have known better than try and be happy. After all, monsters were no better than humans.

The world was a violent place. All Chara, no...

All a demon could do was be worse.

* * *

 **As the title says, in which Undyne does not make an appearance.** **(She gets her own chapter).  
**


	10. In Which Undyne Remembers She's The Hero

Over the screen of Undyne's phone, Alphys waved her clawed hands despite the fact that they were clutching different circuits and papers and a spoon of all things. What terrible science project she might be wrestling with far surpassed Undyne's own vast knowledge of the subject seeing as Undyne got her degree in BUTTKICKING!

A degree useful for many things, least of all teaching practical lessons to two brats when she tracked down the royal pains. To be fair, it was Alphys that was helping to track them down, but the sentiment remained. Undyne was literally five to ten minutes out from their location. Closer considering she was close to running as possible without causing an unwanted panic in the city streets of Monstertown. Things were looking up.

"Al-alright Undyne I think I've got them for sure! They're still in that new greenhouse thing! Sans, are you sure you can't just teleport over?" During the second sentence, Alphys raised her voice so that Sans could hear the phone's limited volume. Poor Alphys probably had more important things to do than help Undyne recover her career, but at the very least, Undyne would make sure to make it up to Alphys. Sans too for losing his job.

Speaking of which…

"Teleport? That sounds cool." Sans leaned in over Undyne's shoulder to address the question. The skeleton was now out of his beige apron and in his usual blue hoodie, though where he found the time to change lay the route to madness that Undyne wasn't willing to breech now of all days.

"So can you teleport over?" Undyne hopped over a rock in the middle of the path big enough to trip her, and instead of moving aside like any reasonable monster, Sans had the audacity to grab and cling to her back like some koala from Super Koala Fighters Deluxe, the continuing animation. Forget being a lazy skeleton, Undyne was pretty sure the guy spent more energy trying to be lazy than actually completing whatever task he was supposed to be doing.

Undyne could respect that level of dedication and lifestyle.

Sans didn't let go after Undyne cleared the rock and actually clung to Undyne's shoulders like he was one of the children she was sent to find instead of her real headaches. He shrugged, a sight Undyne needed to awkwardly move her neck to notice " I mean teleporting is pretty cool. I wish I could teleport."

Without any visible sign of magical use, Sans' weight on Undyne's shoulders disappeared. Undyne felt a pain in her eye, specifically her left one, but just grit her teeth for the upcoming punchline.

Appearing over Alphy's shoulder, Sans did not disappointed.

"Shortcuts on the other hand…"

Alphys shrieked when Sans materialized right next to her shoulders, falling into her legendary swivel chair of lights and magic. The minute she hit the chair, a loud groan came from over the phones speakers-

 **PFFFFFFFFFFFT**

and Undyne immediately resolved to stick shaving cream into Sans' sock or something infantile like that in return for that whoopee cushion trick. For no reason other than defending her crush- she meant her dear friend! Right, her dear friend!

Still, Alphys started chuckling not a second later, clearing off her chair any evidence of the practical joke. Sans practically fell apart, bones and all, ducking out of view of the camera. His chuckling could be heard over the speakers, but the fact that he literally laughed himself into the ground sealed his fate. Vengeance would be swift.

Undyne couldn't help but smile too because for how long today had been, this was really one of the first times she really felt her guard drop. Sans' antics, while untimely, had that kind of effect. He did this often in training too, but when people were upset or stressed, his attention shifted towards making them laugh. He probably thought nobody noticed the way he tried to inspire hope.

Undyne couldn't help but smile at Sans' antics. Oh and plot her sweet revenge.

Every monster did their part against the futility of the Underground. You could always count on someone to lend a hand in the dark, even if that hand was loaded with a whoopee cushion. Undyne's shoulders fell from their tense and battle ready spot, relaxing even as she picked her way through the streets. Things truly were looking up.

Which is exactly why her phone started ringing not a moment later.

"Hold on guys, I'm getting a call. See if you can pinpoint the Royal Pain's location while I answer it." Undyne really didn't want to hang up on Alphys but the number on their phone was that of one of the three guard captains. Alphys, still chuckling to herself while helping Sans pick himself up from the ground, ended the video call.

"So how much you wanna bet that's a problem?"

Sans put a hand on Undyne's shoulder, who did not flinch despite the fact that said hand, only a second ago, occupied a completely different space-time. "I'll bet you 1,000 gold it's those kids." Undyne just glared at the skeleton who quickly removed his hand. "Alright, 10,000 gold. You drive a hard bargain."

For being two white pinpricks in a sea of darkness, Sans' eyes shined with mirth and his patent brand of mischief making. Truly one of a kind. Wait, he apparently had a brother. What if Sans was the mature one? Undyne could only imagine what that household could be like.

 **(FREAKING AWESOME)!**

Still, she had a call to answer. Preferably good news. Bound to be good news. Things were looking up after all.

"Captain Astigmatism sir!" Undyne saluted despite the fact she only let the phone go to voice instead of the videochat she had on with Alphys. Saluting just tickled that sense of duty. "How is it going old man?"

"It's Astigmatism Senior cadet. Astigmatism senior!" Funny that the captain let the old man comment slide. Undyne rolled her eyes. Hey wait, weren't Astigmatisms supposed to be older forms of Looks? Then how come Councilor Look-at-Me was older than the captain but still only a Look? That made almost as much sense as the end of that one anime with the alchemists! Was that one of the reasons why he insisted on being called senior? What was the logic of that?

Undyne would have left herself to ruminate further, but something about the call held her back. Astigmatism **(Senior)** sounded breathless. Like he ran a mile before calling. No wait, he sounded like he was running a mile as he used his phone.

"What's wrong captain?" Undyne always made sure to kiss up to the captains. Nah, that would be ridiculous. She taunted her sovereign leader for a living and the guard wasn't that strict. "How's it going old man?"

Because teasing her higher ups meant things would be okay. Maybe the captain was just calling her to forget sentry duty on her next day off. He knew that she was on her top secret job of being a babysitter, perhaps he was planning to give her a day off. Asgore probably filled him in on everything.

Wait, he was calling from the council meeting! She could talk to Asgore! She could fess up everything! With the King aware of the problem, they could speed up the process of human hunting! Wait, that came out wrong, but the point reamined. This was her chance to-

"We have an emergency situation cadet, and the king won't answer the phone. I can't access the PA systems."

Fishsticks.

Why would he need to call Asgore? Because the captain was in the middle of a meeting of advisors with the king sitting right next to him. He certainly wasn't misinformed about the whole debacle. That would be ridiculous. Maybe the emergency situation was an annoying dog breaking into the armory. Maybe Undyne, an individual used to not thinking hard, was simply too exhausted and misheard.

Well no time for hypotheticals. "What do you mean boss? Isn't Asgore with you?"

"Asgore? I haven't seen or heard him all week."

Well that sounded promising.

Astigmatism continued his out of breath speech. "On patrol, I found a human in the city. Upon confrontation, a monster aided them in their escape. I'm sure you're aware what humans can do. Your orders are to begin evacuations effective immediately."

Important to note in this situation was that Undyne left the park long ago. In fact, she was close enough to probably find the greenhouse all by herself though it would be easier if Alphys tracked it down because directions were everyone's pains. Undyne was right there! This meant that she was in civilization, and while most of the crowd was further up on the main streets, there were still a few monsters on the streets next to her.

All these monsters had front row tickets to the point in which Undyne's already terrible day came to its climax of punching Undyne in the face. Kinda like the way she swung her fist into a nearby wall and leaving a sizable indentation into it. That was Undyne. Undyne was a wall with a bruised face. An angry wall.

Nice of fate to get her hopes up before sending it crumbling down. Remind Undyne to punch fate in the face next time they met.

Momentarily ignoring the stinging pain in her hand, Undyne called out, "Sir, wait! Didn't the king tell you about-."

Before she could say anything else to the captain, the monster hung up the phone to presumably alert the rest of the kingdom. Which was great. Really just perfect. Absolutely wonderful!

If Undyne could look at herself in the mirror at that moment, she would have seen a disheveled fish functioning on far too little sleep for what was to follow. Was this the Undyne that Sans tried to help relax earlier? That was actually nice of the guy. Perhaps Sans had the right idea about naps. Once Undyne finished burning the entire city to the ground, she could take a nap.

Those kids were finished. But they weren't the only ones.

Undyne turned to face Sans. "Well we're screwed."

Sans' expression didn't change as usual, but he did stick his hands into his hoodie. "So ummmm. That's not good huh? Maybe it's a different human and criminal accomplice."

From Sans' jacket, a song started playing not even a second after Sans's sentence. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a track phone. Sans's phone, a beat-up model that looked like it had barely been cleaned since being dragged out of the dump, began to ring. He took one look at it and showed the caller ID to Undyne which identified the other line as Captain eyeball guy.

To be honest, Captain eyeball guy was tame for Sans, but Astigmatism's name was already a pun, and Undyne did not care in the slightest anymore. She had bigger fish to fry.

Sans waggled the phone. "I think I can figure out what this call is about. He's even calling the lookouts. Pretty thorough of the guy." Sans shoved the phone back into his jacket which noticeably caused no distortion in the fabric like the phone had simply disappeared.

If she wasn't at her breaking point, Undyne might have said something to lighten the mood. The fact remained, though, that Undyne broke. Again. One would think that she hit that point a long time ago, but Undyne was discovering all sorts of new things today wasn't she?

"You better start doing that teleport thing."

"What teleport thing? Too bad I can't teleport as we previously established" Sans chuckled to himself, but with a different tone from his previous jests. One probably influenced by the steam Undyne was giving off through pure rage. Pure directed rage.

Undyne formed a spear in her hand, pointed directly at where Sans' heart would be if he wasn't made of bones and ketchup. "Teleport. Now!"

"Alright, alright! No need to puffer up at me. Get it, cause you're a-"

"ARGH!"

Sans disappeared. A part of Undyne felt shame at threatening the guy like that, but for the other parts? Well, they were focused on the concern that everything went sideways in the worst possible way. It was official. Undyne was the. Worst. Babysitter. Ever.

Well, not a moment to lose. Subtlety was officially out, but then again… Undyne was never a fan.

It was a march that took her out of that sidealley and onto the bigger yet crowded main street. She ought have been wearing something more imposing than casual clothes for what she planned next, but the grip on her spear more than made up for the lack of armor for her intimidation factor. Put one steaming fish and add to the mix a busy street of carousing, gossiping,and meandering monsters. She burst into their sight and without even giving the crowd a moment to think or talk or get in her way, Undyne took a deep breath, and at the top of her lungs...

"HEY, YOU LOT! GET OUT OF MY WAY! ROYAL GUARD BUSINESS!"

Instead of moving, Undyne only attracted an unsurprising number of looks, even some annoyed glares at having their business interrupted. One of the food vendors, wearing the same uniform Sans originally wore, had the audacity to make a rude gesture at her.

Was that Sans' old boss? Well good riddance for him losing that job. Undyne wouldn't want to work for that buffoon anyway. Undyne didn't break her killer stare at the former living being. In fact, her next bit was shouted directly at him.

"I WILL SHOVE YOU INTO THE WATERFALL DUMPS! MOVE OR BE MOVED!"

She pointed her spear straight at the vendor that fired Sans, grinning with razor sharp teeth and ire that, while technically misplaced, made her feel better about herself.

The troublesome food vendor fainted, eyes rolling to the back of his head in fear.

The crowd scattered at that. She scattered the crowd like a drill would from that one robot anime would tear through other mecha. That was a good metaphor for Undyne too because she was ready to tear something apart. Preferably two absolute idiots.

Undyne's phone started ringing. Undyne almost chucked it into the wall until she read Alphys' name which meant the phone got to live after all. Undyne didn't break her stride, switching to video with her focus still on barging through the rioting streets.

Rioting was a good word to use because Undyne noticed Royal guards beginning to arrive, struggling to direct the moving crowds into a semblance of calm. But the crowd was confused and a very fickle thing. For one, no one really explained to them what they were running from because the PA systems were yet to fire. All this, while noticeable, fell to the back of Undyne's mind because her phone showed the panic the streets could not.

Alphys was shivering on the screen and certainly not with laughter like before. In the background, Undyne could make out a mess of papers that had been thrown to the winds and scattered onto the ground, blueprints from Alphys's new job that were going to waste. What a way to start a new lab. What a day.

"U-Undyne. The captain of the guard just called me! He said there's a human!" Alphys bit her nails, a task made harder by shaking hands. Her eyes were darting back and forth in calculating panic. "They're going to tear those kids apart!"

"Not if I get to them first." Likewise, Undyne's hands shook with a slightly different emotion.

"Ummm… That sounds uhh great! But I lost track of them on the cameras, and Captain Astigmatism wants me to sound the PA for evacuations but all the guard already knows!"

"I said move! Scatter punks!" Undyne snarled at monsters twice her age and weight limit but the ones in front of her thought better than piss off the angry fish. Especially one with a deathgrip on her shining, teal spear that promised bodily harm. "Sorry Alphys. I missed that last part."

Undyne started to sprint. She wasn't in her full armor which meant that she could move much quicker while still being able to bulldoze her way into anything in the path by virtue of stubbornness and muscle. Where she was going, Undyne didn't know. But her gut said move. Undyne obliged.

"They're not in the greenhouse anymore! I'm looking for the kids but… Astigmatism keeps calling! I'm trying to stall him, but I think he sent someone to check in and alert the whole Underground!"

Well that could be bad. Already, Undyne knew the chance of keeping this quiet died a horrible death. But the chance that something would go horribly wrong loomed over the conversation and the panicking city.

"Is anyone close enough to that lab in Hotland? Can you delay the guards?"

Alphys laughed out loud. "Y-Yeah, the brand new royal scientist that no one has heard speak calls off the war on humanity. T-that will go over well. I-I'l get right on that!"

Shoot. Alphys was right. Also beautiful but that fact needed to be crushed to a deeper part of Undyne's psyche while she dealt with the mess at hand. "Focus on finding out where those two went."

Well, where one of them went to be honest, but Undyne was blaming both Asriel and Chara. They were a set pair of petty pranksters and kids. When Undyne grounded them for the rest of their lives, they would be sharing the six life sentences together.

A royal guard member called out to Undyne and probably received the surprise of his life when Undyne not only ignored him, but barged past the crowd. All with the hopes of spotting two kids, which really was no hope at all. Undyne needed to force her way through the evacuating hordes of monsters, dancing past bystanders with an agility that sorely put itself to the test. It was the best she could do without knowing exactly where her charges went. What was Undyne supposed to do, appear right next to her target?

"Heya. So what did the fishmonger say to the salmon?"

Fate would be punched in the face only once, Undyne decided.

"That I will gut you like a fish Sans." Undyne didn't even blink an eye when Sans appeared right next to her. "Report or I will stuff you into a ball and shove you into the trash."

"At this stage in our relationship? Really Undyne?" Sans winked. How he did that with his lack of eyelids was anyone's guess. "I found them, I guess."

Sans yawned mid sentence, his lack of care contrasting his words of thin hope. But it wasn't disillusionment at all. The guy fell forward, losing his balance of his own accord. Her anger at his attitude and the rest of the situation dropped into the steel ball in her stomach with the rest of her nerves. Before Sans could hit the ground, Undyne grabbed him.

Undyne offered a hand, one that Sans gripped like a lifeline when Undyne pulled him up to his feet. A moment later, he shrugged himself up. Sans took a single breath before shaking his head and letting go of Undyne's supporting arm.

"Sorry. That jump took a bit of energy from me. I was planning to take a nap afterward and all, not get coerced into human hunting."

If Undyne didn't know any better, Sans sounded almost bitter. No, bitter was the wrong word. He clearly understood the gravity of the situation, but why did he sound almost reluctant?

"They're in danger." Undyne wanted to cross her arms at Sans' minor venom, yet settled instead on an insistent tone. Sans' next question only threw her further afield.

"Why do you care anyway?"

Sans's question was simple. He shoved his hands into his coat pockets, waiting for an answer.

"Because…"

Only, Undyne really couldn't answer. Why couldn't she answer? If she was ripping through the city, sidestepping pedestrians that did not know when to move their sorry butts when a guardswoman shouted, why couldn't she answer?

Sans continued, "It's just that. You kinda hate humans. Don't you? Not like a couple of days of babysitting would change that. Things don't change down here. They never do." Sans's words hinted at some deeper meaning, but Undyne found herself focused on the question that started all her sudden torment.

Why did she care?

Asriel and Chara were nothing but nasty to her. Sure, Undyne may have deserved some of that bitterness, but she was only doing her job. Her real job of fighting humans. And now? She kept one safe just because Asgore asked her too. Was that why she fought? Because Asgore said so?

It couldn't just be that.

Sans must have noticed her lack of a response because he pulled a hand out of the bottomless pit that was his coat pocket. "You know what?" He yawned mid sentence, probably a rude thing to do but he literally fell over from exhaustion not thirty seconds ago. "I didn't sign up for this protection business. In fact, I think it was the opposite. Funny right?"

"Hilarious."

But Sans made sense. He was a lookout Undyne dragged into some confidential business. Hell, Undyne technically only ranked up to a trainee despite how capable and and guardworthy she was. What authority did she have over Sans to demand him to jump? Jump into a dangerous situation because a human of all things.

Could Undyne even bother to call herself a part of the guard? To slay humanity? How could she avenge monsterkind when she was busy babysitting the literal enemy?

She could leave them. Let whoever was in charge deal with the problem. Who cared if there was a miscommunication with the guard captains? Undyne couldn't find the brat after they snuck off with Asriel. She could help with the evacuations and leave this whole mess of morals behind her.

She could leave the kid behind...

Asgore's smile came to mind. The day he confessed his sins to his children, yet all he suffered was the indignity of being hugged by two kids. Bawling brats that couldn't do anything but cling to their father. A scene filled with tenderness that she could mistake for any monster. But Chara wasn't a monster...

 **(Who cares?)**

And Asriel. Someone nothing like the stories told. Someone who taunted and cried crocodile tears. Someone who filled Undyne with a sense of dread and foreboding like nothing else...

 **(So what he cries? He's a kid. Get your butt into gear punk!)**

But why does the Royal guard fight if not to-

 **(Who cares about the royal guard! Why do you fight?)**

Why did Undyne fight?

* * *

Undyne was ten. An impetuous brat. A scallywag beyond compare. The school teachers dreaded her, she was proud to admit. Forget sums and maths. The monsters couldn't even catch her whenever she ran across puddles, foregoing umbrellas to better feel the water on her back. To feel the pounding in her heart that made her feel alive. Because all her running, all her scrabbling, all her terror-inducing ways meant one things. Undyne was free.

Yet Undyne was so alone.

"Howdy there little one. How did you get in here? Are you lost?"

Lost? Never! Not with another challenge in her way. So what if it was the biggest one under the mountain? Undyne couldn't be held back by silly things like sovereignty. So she said the only thing she ever did, to cling to who she never was.

"Fight me!"

Asgore, king of monsters, was never one to be categorized. He wasn't like the gangs of children that banded together away from the scolding eyes of teachers, the ones that tried to break her spirit with pointed words or deeds. He wasn't like the knights that roamed Waterfall, perfectly willing to scold a child for defending herself yet never willing to step in when Undyne really out of her depths. He wasn't even like Gerson, that old war hero with the most interesting stories but far past the age to go watching every orphan in Waterfall, bless that old, tired turtle.

No, the king just stood there, beaming at a snarling, practically feral child. A beast that swung wildly, hoping to land a hit at the strongest in the land. Stood there, with the kindest grin in his eyes while Undyne tried to beat him.

Oh and Undyne tried. She threw half formed bullets that no one taught her to shape. She fought with the experience of one who squabble for a living. One who fought out of sight of the scolding eyes of those who never intervened. She snarled, a beast practically void of being called a person. An it. Feral, cruel, vicious.

Not a person at all. Only a thing.

Asgore never let _IT_ hit him. Dodging out of the way of every time, yet never letting that smile falter. Even when the ravenous brat tried to harm everything, Asgore simply shouted words of encouragement. Never once dropping that irksome smile. And when all things were said and done, when the raging demon could swing no more? Well, he put a hand on IT's back, and asked if _she_ wanted some tea.

 **(Do you remember why you fight kid)?**

From behind Undyne, a voice called out to her. She turned to a mirror image of her own self, but only just similar enough to be called a reflection. For one, the monster in front of her was older. Standing tall in casual clothes of the sort that Undyne could never afford to own, but maybe when she was older, might choose to pick up.

And another difference that stood stark in Undyne's mind was the eye. The one that was aching on the younger stood covered by an eyepatch that the elder wore as easily as any of her other clothes.

The older knight, for who else could she be, snorted when she noticed the younger ones gaze.

 **(Well kid? Your answer?)**

Almost like she was held in a trance, Undyne turned back to the sight of Asgore. Now standing, holding the hand of a child left behind by everyone she knew. The two picking their way past the throne, careful to step past the younger green shoots of flowers, poking their heads out of the ground for the first time. What would later be a throne room full of yellow flowers stood only a green canvas, a beginning of an era so to speak.

And when Asgore, with a tiny hand clutched in his own, reached the exit to his throne room, he didn't leave. Instead, he turned around and smiled. Full of hope that Undyne would have mistaken for herself if his eyes didn't extend further. To a covered chair with a white blanket and the portrait that hung above it. A familiar portrait to Undyne that showed a painted scene of a family long gone. Two kids, identical in every way that mattered, holding onto the hands of a smiling king.

He stared a moment before an impatient Undyne dragged him out of his own throne room, yet never by any means that would force the King to move. When the king moved on, he did it of his free will.

 **(I won't lie to you. It will be tough when no one remembers what should never be forgotten. But if anything else, do you know why you fight?)**

Undyne faced back to the older version of herself, but the specter of fate was gone. That mirror image before her, standing in the young golden flowers, could be called a perfect reflection now. An image of Undyne, where she was in her life right before her sudden collapse. Undyne reached out with one hand, and the image copied her movements.

"I'm confused." Undyne admitted. The image before her made no move to elaborate, only staring back with two eyes that shone in the light. "But I think I get it now."

Because she did. Maybe Undyne couldn't put it to words now or even ever, but the feeling inside her defied classification anyhow. How could one describe such a sensation as hope? Hope in fear. Hope in pain. Hope for a better tomorrow. Not a refusal of the evils of the world but rather a reinforcement that good people lived. A hope that no other children would be left abandoned.

And the Undyne in the mirror smiled and let the real one wake up.

* * *

 **In which Undyne doesn't realize that vivid hallucinations of backstories isn't a normal thing. And why wouldn't it be normal? It happens in anime all the time, and anime is real!**


	11. In Which Voices Are Ignored

"Asriel, you're leaking something."

 **(Asriel pulses a glowing green. A normal behavior for sure).**

Chara loathed physical contact. In a family where touch was as easy as breathing, with their father the biggest offender with his back breaking hugs,avoiding displays of affection was never easy. Sure, Chara could tolerate physical touch when they needed to, but when did that ever happen? It would take an aching injury to make Chara initiate contact. For example, like how they tolerated Asriel's arm propping up their shoulder so that the two could stumble out of the Greenhouse and into the great unknown.

Chara's side felt like red hot knives were plunged into it, slowing Chara's tread to a veritable crawl in the empty streets outside the greenhouse. No monsters were able to catch up to the two mostly thanks to a quick turn down an empty passage, but things weren't exactly looking up. Run away? Forget run, Chara could barely stand without shoots of pain. Asriel's physical contact became necessary but still unpleasant, especially considering he was glowing a bright green color.

 **(Truly the most stubborn of plants).**

"You feel green with envy." Chara whispered to themselves, more out of a way to block the pain, but Asriel's ears twitched; his head turning to Chara.

"You idiot! Don't talk. You might break something."

"You're the idiot!" Chara would have shoved Asriel at his sass, but considering they were supporting each other in more than the figurative sense, Chara settled for sticking a tongue out. A bloody tongue. Ewww.

"Your tongue is bleeding! I don't even know how blood works!" Asriel voice rose to a far higher pitch in his hysterics. And Chara didn't blame him one bit. Who knows how long the stupid Guard Captain would be kept chained in place? Asriel could only move so far, and it wasn't like there were any food carts that they could raid for healing items. Not many vendors sold things in between the ill-lit, roughly hewn stones of apartment buildings. Not like Chara could heal the two with green magic...

"Wait. Green magic heals things right? Aren't you glowing green Azzy?" The words were thick on their tongue but loud enough for Asriel to stop in his tracks. Chara shook off his support and leaned against the nearby wall to leave Asriel's hands free to work his magic, but no magic burst of energy came. Asriel only widened his eyes and shook his head.

"I have no idea how I'm doing this!"

Chara pointed back towards the open street, a road just on the edge of their sight but still close enough to be a threat for anyone not being slowed down by external and internal bleeding."Didn't you just wrap those murderers up? Seemed deliberate to me." Their free hand brushed over their side. Yep, definitely a busted rib. Not a bad swing on that Captain. Maybe he played tennis with human skulls.

"Chara, you know I use fire magic!" Asriel wringed his hands together, his fingers interlacing and unlacing themselves with his words. Unlike Chara, who was leaning on the wall for support, Asriel stood without any support if you didn't count the swaying and unsteadiness in his feet. Magical exhaustion maybe? Any speculation was rendered moot because he was still glowing green which meant not only was he tired but ecologically friendly.

"Just make a fireball but green." Chara offered but Asriel raised an eyebrow in response.

"Golly, why didn't I think of that! Look here, a regular human mage!"

"Then cauterize my side, you butt."

Extreme maybe and Asriel's reactions showed it. Did magical fire even work that way? Who knows? Asriel's horrified gasp didn't contribute to the planning stage and frankly, Chara was running out of ideas. Chara wouldn't be willing to risk it all if they weren't desperate.

"I… can't. My fire isn't working." Asriel trailed off to himself, his next words more a mumble only to himself. "If I knew what was happening…"

"Then you're useless." Chara wrenched themselves up from their space on the wall, gritting their teeth at the pain but pushing forward anyway. Chara took one step, then another. But when they turned around to look at Asriel, he hadn't moved.

His face twisted into a look of concern that stood stock still like he'd been paralyzed.

What may have been an offhand comment for Chara made wide eyes open further, and his shaking hands freeze in place. Then Asriel fell forward, as if to try to grab Chara's arm and stop them from leaving. Leaving him.

"Wait. Don't go. Please Chara!" Tears misted Asriel's eyes into a blurry mess. Asriel's words a call that rang across the alleyway, bouncing back and forth the walls until it burrowed into Chara's heart. "Please don't leave again. Please."

"Azzy I'm…" But Chara coughed at the most inopportune time. Wracking breaths of air that shook their frame and brought their words to a choked crawl.

Asriel lunged forward, putting their glowing hand on Chara's shoulder. The vibrantly green and pulsing energy snaked forward like a construct of a hand reaching forward to right an undue wrong. Chara's shoulder, numb as it was, felt a sharp prick like a needle as a vine slowly twisted around Chara's arms, intertwining both children with green, pulsing energy until the vine snaked across Chara's front and plunged into their heart.

All of a sudden, Chara's injuries began to fade as the parasitic vine began to pulse synchronized with the beating of their heart, hopelessly tied with their soul. Chara's aching side subsided in waves as the pulse of green energy washed over. Even as their side mended, their muscles relaxed like they'd taken a rest within the last hour. That biting tiredness from before felt like Asriel shoved a barrel of coffee at the concept of exhaustion. Asriel swayed as the vine unwrapped itself with a slow crawl, and something told Chara that if green magic wasn't being dumped into their systems, the vines would be causing him harm. Finally, the last of the green cord retreated to Asriel's shaking hands.

Then Asriel fell forward, losing his balance and crashing against the ground. Their brother cried out in pain, left quivering and shaking and a mess of a monster-

 **(No…)**

"Asriel!"

Then Asriel fell forward, almost losing his balance and hitting the ground if Chara didn't catch him at the last moment, lunging forward with newfound strength. But instead of an exhausted sigh of relief, his eyes were blinking and his breathing was erratic.

"See. I can be useful! Friends like us. I… can help you! You wouldn't get rid of something useful!" Asriel shivered, babbling more to himself than Chara. With his free hand, he tried to wipe away the tears while still apologizing, begging and pleading. His other hand left a pressure on Chara's chest as Asriel tried to push them back and stand by himself.

Chara felt bile in the back of their throat, but Asriel was hyperventilating and now Chara couldn't breath and-

So Chara initiated contact this time. Wrapping their arms around one of the only people to never betray them. "Asriel, you dummy." Chara whispered softly, hugging his shaking frame and hoping that their own wasn't as fragile.

 **(You hug the goat).**

Chara hugged Asriel, throwing their arms around him and letting their brother cry in their shoulder. "Shhhh. It's okay. I'm right here you dork." Asriel just sobbed further, clinging to Chara like a lifeline. "Shhhh crybaby weirdo."

Chara's attempt to cheer Asriel up was awkward, no getting around that, but as awkward as their comfort was, Chara's attempt was working. As unpleasant as it felt to cling to someone, a part of Chara felt the strange need to just stay there. Two opposing feelings in their heart clashed. One that burned at the sensation of touch but the other that couldn't let go.

 **(You don't want to let go).**

So Chara didn't.

After an eternity of shushed words and sniffles, Asriel looked up. His eye still washed up despite his sweater's efforts of drying them. In fact, that poor sweater was more a damp towel than anything. Chara squeezed Asriel's shoulders. "Did you get that out of your system?"

Chara's words were carefully framed, but even as upset as he was, Asriel shrugged at the unspoken question in the words. Indeed, what a pertinent question seeing as he no longer glowed green. His fur was now just a smudged white, stained by dirt and sorrow meant to leave a poor goat child to shake in the windless cavern.

"I… don't kill me. Please."

Chara only hugged him tighter, ignoring that sense of discomfort from touch. All this to help their brother and in some ways, help anchor themselves back to the ground. That fearful, broken anchor...

"Asriel. You're fine. W-why... would I do that?" Slow words. Careful words. Like one would a spooked alley cat. Chara knew a cat like that on the surface. A cat that would respond to tone more than anything. It was a thin animal, that cat. Starving like Chara once was. Shaking like Asriel now.

"The voice said so." Asriel shoved his face against Chara's shoulder, his tears soaking the already dirty fabric while Chara's world went sideways.

"A… voice?"

Asriel just sniffed, moving closer and gripping Chara with a tighter hug. Where normally Chara would ring up their half-hearted objections, they remained silent given the tight clench where their soul was.

"Asriel. The voice." Chara put a hand on Asriel's back, still whispering so to not startle the panicking child. " Just ignore it. I've ignored mine since we got back."

Asriel looked up at Chara's admittance. "Your voice? But-" A glance came over his eyes. In between the tears and the shaking, there was a glint of some hidden curiosity. A look so contrary to his current state of being that told Chara something other than Asriel was behind such a look.

And Chara didn't like it.

"I'm right here Azzy." These words were louder. To reassure him now that his breathing had calmed. But Asriel was still panicking no matter what strange look in his eyes. His breathing far too similar to their own for Chara to not intervene and help. "We're fine. And that's not changing. We're going to get back to Dad. Doesn't matter what the voices say okay?"

Chara was moving now. Guiding Asriel's shoulders so that he would start following. Away from the dangerous situation they were still very much in. How long did they have left?

"Doing better Azzy?"

Asriel nodded his head, but the rest of his body was shaking, so he was still not back to his normal senses. Which was bad because Chara was usually the one who panicked. Asriel was supposed to be the voice of reason. Was Chara supposed to pick up the slack?

 **(The thought of your brother fills you with determination).**

Nope. Ignore it. Ignore it hard.

"Azzy, we'll get home and let that science lady look at you. That sounds alright?" Chara kept a calm tone despite everything going wrong.

"Not her. Not Alphys She'll muck it up." His words while not exactly slurred, were slow.

"Unless you can think of another doctor, we're going. Come on. We're going down a street now. Come on, let's go home."

Asriel stopped in place which made the already difficult task of guiding him near impossible. "Chara, the guard! He'll catch up and-"

Chara shushed him, already shepherding him forward into the light and the path ahead of them. "Don't worry about that. You worry about standing up straight, and I'll kill anyone who gets in our way."

* * *

When Undyne opened her eyes, her greeting consisted of a closer than necessary encounter with the cobblestone ground. Combine that with the numb feeling in her jaw and the fact that her arms were spread out on the streets like she'd been run over by some charging bull told Undyne what just happened.

Anime style stress dreams! Talk about a protagonist kind of thing to have. Big, symbolic visions that told Undyne she binged watched too much anime before going to sleep last night. What better way to explain her subconscious projection of herself as a hero. And man was Undyne cool in her future and or dreams. Maybe she should invest in an eyepatch...

Next to Undyne side, her phone lay on the ground right next to her head with the unwelcome image of a practically frantic Alphys. She must have dropped it when she fainted due to exhaustion. Man, what a non-magical and commonplace thing to do! Did that mean Undyne got her own anime now?

"How long was I out?"

"Couple of minutes." The white skull of Death whispered to her.

Undyne sat up, despite the headrush it brought. Her hand clenched around where a spear would form to fight if needed. Sitting cross legged on the ground across from Undyne, Sans only raised one of his nonexistent eyebrows.

"Hey umm, look kinda pale. Maybe you want to sit down?"

Gritting her teeth, Undyne forced her heavy limbs to move and to her surprise, they complied. Pushing off from the ground without any resistance, she sat up to match San's pose of crossed legs.

Sans waved a hand in front of Undyne's face. "That wasn't a joke you know. Humor in this kind of crisis would be rather fishy."

"Help me up. I'm not giving up now."

Sans opened his mouth a little and stared. "Umm that's... nice? You know you just fainted? And you scold me for taking naps. You can barely swim your way off the ground."

"Not now Sans. I've got work to do." Once on her feet, the results of her nap revealed themselves. She was now officially more exhausted than ever. Really, the healthy thing to do would be to relax a bit.

Yeah screw that. Undyne took a step forward.

"H-hey Undyne!" Alphys' voice made Undyne flinch. The phone was still on the ground with poor Alphys probably panicking in the background. Not to mention the view on the video wouldn't explain anything, just show her back and legs. Hardly anything to see really. Well, Alphys was blushing red in the background but who could tell what that was for?

"Undyne, Y-you should really take care of yourself. I couldn't see anything after you dropped the phone! I had to ask Sans for help! Sans!"

"Hey." Sans complained but without any real emotion or effort in his response since Sans was still occasionally yawning.

"Never mind that Alphys. I'm fine." Undyne lied like the liar she was. "We've still got a job to do. Sans can you still teleport me over?"

Sans, being a non-protagonist who didn't have the benefit of context that hallucinatory dreams gave heroes, coughed once. Standing up from his spot on the ground, he gestured with both hands to Undyne. "Ummm. You hate humanity remember? Why would you bother? You're half asleep anyway!"

"I had time to think about it."

"When you fainted."

At the same time, Alphys whispered out. "Umm. U-Undyne. That's… interesting?"

"I took a power nap! Ready for the fight now!" Undyne's words didn't even convince herself much less her two naysayers. But now wasn't the time for second thoughts. She had a job to do.

"So why are you helping them? The Undyne I know wouldn't do this." Sans folded his hands into the jacket pockets of his space defying hoodie, and you know what? Undyne didn't blame him for skepticism. Undyne didn't know Sans that well. This was probably the longest she's talked to the guy. Sure they talked now and then in training, but he probably had no context on why Undyne was trusting him or making such a point on helping a human.

Well as many mistakes as Undyne had made leading up to this, being honest was never one she regretted. "Look Sans, I promised to keep my eye on the kids. I might as well keep that promise. And every moment we spend waiting here is another chance for them to get hurt. "

"A promise huh?" Sans moved forward, close enough to reach out with a hand though he made no move to remove his hands from his pockets. "You know, I know how that feels. Is it really worth it for some brats?"

"Just get to know them." Undyne lied. Because she knew them and wanted to strangle them on a daily basis. Considering she'd known them for only days, that was an accomplishment. "Help me out here, and I'll put in a good word for Asgore or something."

Sans was quiet for a second. During that silence, the sounds of the bustling city came into focus, or rather, the militant cries of guardsmen mingling with the nervous chatter of monsters being shepherded to safety.

"H-hey guys! Might want to get a move on! Captain Astigmatism just called me again! He really wants the alarms to sound! And the evacuations! I'm going to have to hang up here so I can stall him."

Alphys would stall him. Alphys, who wasn't someone who did well with conversations was going to try to stall. "Thanks Alphys. You're braver than me you know. Has anyone ever told you that?"

Huh, Alphys went bright red again. Undyne wondered why. She just said the truth. Alphys wasn't someone who likes social conversations, and Captain Astigmatism was someone who wouldn't take no for an answer. Alphys was brave. "You should hear it more often you know. You're really brave."

And pretty. But that went unsaid.

Alphys shook her head looking anywhere but at Undyne's eyes. . "I-umm. I. ! Think. Words. Ahhh-"

Alphys hung up rather than try and finish her broken sentence, leaving Undyne alone with Sans. He sighed once, long and drawn out enough to be a front for his exasperation. He was a skeleton after all and had no need for air. Still, Sans finally shrugged. "Well it's a good thing I know a shortcut."

"Just teleport you comedian" Undyne ordered though her grin conveyed her real feelings far better than mere words.

"What's teleporting?" Sans joked back before reality snapped. A blurry cascade of images poured into Undyne's eyes as the two blinked out of existence. Numbers of all things floated throughout reality, as if the world was some sort of computer game that made Undyne's eye spin at the same time as blinding the other one. It happened in an instant, but at the same stretched out for hours of numerical torment. The worst kind of torment to be honest. Then she appeared back in real space and said the only thing she could.

"That sucked."

"Well if I wasn't so dead tired. Hah get it? Dead tired." Sans looked unsteady on his feet. Maybe some sort of magical exhaustion? His other practical jokes using the whole teleporting thing didn't leave him too exhausted but the guy was teleporting back and forth quite a lot today. Perhaps that used energy made things so dizzy? Anyway it didn't matter because Undyne's migraine just got a whole lot worse.

"Sucked I say!" Undyne complained but focused her attention back on the street they appeared in. It was a rather empty street despite the odd dozen monsters scattered behind buildings and ducking under cover like they were on a tattered battlefield. Two rabbits peered out of broken windows with holes through the glass. Probably the store owners judging from the sign that hung over their building. Other monsters simply ducked under benches or whatever nearby cover they could find. In fact, the only one not in cover was a single skeleton in black robes. The specter stood watching the proceedings unfold, not moving despite the caution of the others. All these monsters without a human or goat in sight.

"They're not here Sans."

Sans shrugged. "Well, they were in that alleyway a couple of minutes ago. Might have moved. Let's ask one of them." He pointed towards a dragon, doing his best to hide behind one of the cameras light poles despite the fact that he was easily much wider than such a device.

Despite this oddity, or perhaps because of it, Undyne ran up to him. "What's going on here?" No one was evacuating, so it wasn't like some guards were here to cause such an odd response from pedestrians.

"There was a monster!" The dragon answered with a voice far higher than his size would have implied, to the point of comedy if Undyne wasn't busy trying to prevent murder.

"Really specific. Thanks. Shall I point out that you're a monster?" Undyne diplomatically said.

"No! It was snarling! And had a knife!" The monster clarified because this guy was turning out ever so helpful. Well that really cleared things up. Snarling? Had a knife? At least Undyne's vast experience of a few days told her this was probably the human.

 **(Yeah that sounds like them)**

Undyne twitched as that thought came into their head, but since Undyne was currently functioning on too little sleep, hearing voices was probably par for the course. Important matters were at hand, anime dreams! There would be a time for flashbacks later!

"What's going on here? No one seems hurt." Indeed, despite some minor property damage, most monsters were picking themselves up and cautiously poking their heads out of their hiding spots which meant that this couldn't have happened too long ago.

"Nobody was hurt but that kid!"

Well great. That word could only mean so many things. In fact, even if it wasn't Undyne's two charges, that was a bad combination of words to say. "A kid got hurt?"

Undyne tried not to let her desperation show but her witness clearly caught on. The dragon nodded, his green scales reflecting light whenever he moved. "Yeah, A boss monster! One of those nobles I reckon!"

Not the human. Of course the kid who should have been relatively safe was injured. In fact, Undyne wasn't surprised. Asriel tried to pull something stupid when Undyne was still trying to kill Chara. Why would he learn something new from that ideal? That would imply a sense of maturity!

Undyne's eyewitness continued his story. "Somebody went up to help the little guy, but his friend freaked out. Started waving around a knife and everything!"

Undyne's hands clenched together, already scanning the streets for a sign of where they went scurrying. Nothing around her really told Undyne anything beside the fact that Sans could fall asleep standing up. She shoved him over and turned her attention back to her only lead. "Where'd they go?"

"I dunno. A guard went up to help, but the boss monster started panicking too! Started using orange magic and firing bullets everywhere! I needed to take cover like everyone else!" He said and gestured to the light pole which still refused to completely cover his body.

At that point, Undyne's patience ran thin. "Think! Where'd they run off too?"

"Up the street. Close to the King's path I think."

Undyne nodded, going through directions in her head. The king's path led directly to New Home. The kids were hightailing it home, and who could blame them for that choice? With one injured, where else would they go? They were two, apparently panicking kids who were on the radar of the entire region's law enforcement. Kids apparently causing property damage and untold panic, but it wasn't like Undyne hadn't accidentally caused a few panics in her time. Punch one birdbrain named Beardly in the face and it's like the entire street goes insane! It didn't matter because Asgore would sort things out with the city and the guard.

Fortune was shining on Undyne since those kids couldn't have gone too far. Undyne should be able to catch up if she hurried up. Then, she could get her focus back on getting them out of this mess. She could get the kids safe at New Home, then Undyne could figure out why Asgore wasn't answering his phone. Asgore could take care of things! Yeah, that was a plan!

Just only one problem…

"Hey Sans. How do you calm two panicking kids when they already hate you?"

* * *

 **Talk about timing issues. If only someone didn't faint for reasons that certainly had nothing to do with the overarching plot. Undyne might have been able to catch up with the runaways and resolves things without any issues!**

 **Slight issues delayed this chapter and the next one too, but we're nearing the end of this arc.**


	12. In Which Misunderstandings are Clarified

"Behind us, Chara."

Chara didn't have the time to sit still and gesture some sort of thank you at him, but their rudeness stemmed from the fact that he was glowing a bright orange now and occasionally pulsing with bursts of magical energy. Now a few side effects of such an occurrence may or may not include the fact that orange magic was highly toxic to little things like human souls. Good thing that none of those were around!

Chara couldn't stand still. Couldn't stop for even a moment because Asriel would probably end up hurting them. Worse was the fact that one of the guards started chasing them a few blocks back, hellbent on killing two small children because need Chara remind themselves, the betrayal of monsterkind was complete and total. The abandonment of their ethics warranted a response of brimstone and-

 **(Hey Chara. Orange you glad that-)**

"No. Not now. Tell puns later."

Asriel who was still magically exhausted, limping, and paradoxically glowing orange, turned to face Chara. "I didn't say anything." His comment was punctuated by another burst of energy which was clearly not normal and would need solving if Chara wasn't busy losing their mind.

 **(Alright, I've goat another for one later then).**

Chara didn't deign to answer either of the headaches who were operating completely outside knowledge of one another, yet still somehow able to time their comments accordingly. Besides it didn't matter since they were still being chased and about to die horribly.

Their pursuer was a dog monster, which usually meant that Chara would stop and pet them because that was something that a broken little child would love to do to pass their times. Of course, that was made difficult by the fact that this dog held a huge axe in her off hand. No, not huge, a gargantuan two handed axe with her offhand.

"Bark! Wait up!"

Now, normally Chara could try losing them in the alleyways. The issue of course was that Asriel was stumbling, and interfering with the whole run for their lives part of the plan. The only reason the guard hadn't caught up was the fact that it had only been a few seconds since she started chasing them. Not exactly a great track record. They were screwed. Chara didn't fancy their gardening knife against that giant axe. They were Dead. Deceased. Unlived. Murdered.

 **(Act: Flirt)**

Chara ignored the voice in their head because only an idiot would try flirting with an enemy in the middle of combat. Instead they swerved out of the way of an abandoned hot dog cart because the streets were empty for some forsaken reason. The same wasn't true for the houses along the way. Some doors were left open with not a monster in sight, while others still had occupants, hiding their faces behind windows and looking down at the streets below. Why? Chara couldn't begin to guess with so many other things to worry about. There was no room for any fancy tricks or shortcuts, not when Asriel's best movement speed equated to a shuffle.

The dog, and thus the axe, got closer.

 **(Act: Flirt Harder)**

Whelp nothing left to do but make sure one of them got out of this alive. "Go get Dad!" Chara whispered to Asriel and shoved Asriel's back, sending him stumbling up the street but away from the threat..

"No! You idiot!" Asriel's cry went ignored. The demon wasn't ready to lose at this point. Chara was already turning around and bringing a shaking knife to their side. Concealed by their pant pocket, perhaps their only chance here was to get in close and strike. For some reason, the guard didn't try swinging immediately with their axe, instead stopping just a few feet away from them.

"Hello! My name is Superior Dog."

"Stop. Just stop!" Chara wasn't shaking. Their foe was before them after all. The dog that faced Chara stood on two legs like all the monsters they'd faced before. Superior Dog's white fur was covered by their black cloak, in addition to concealing all but the heft of her giant axe. She had a dopish grin on her snout that made Chara pause. Her white fur, her smile, all reminded Chara of Asgore or Toriel…

No! They were in danger! Chara wasn't scared! Monsters were dangerous! They weren't any good. Chara couldn't trust anyone but their family now!

"Your friend doesn't look too great. I just got back into town and noticed the problem. " Superior Dog's blue eyes were centered behind Chara as the venomous words trickled into their ears. Chara cast a sideways glance and realized that the stupid! Idiot! Traitor! Moron-

 **(Not nice words)**

Asriel, the stupid butt, wasn't escaping like he was supposed to. Instead, he was just clutching his side and standing next to the conflict. His fur was back to a non glowing state, but his uneven breath probably signaled another strange lightshow. So far, his colors had been green and orange. What next, purple? Did it matter because Chara's heroic last stand just became more or less meaningless.

"Why don't you come over here?" Superior Dog asked, but the shadow of her axe loomed over the street with the lights of the city casting a fearsome image over the scene. Chara tightened their grip around their knife, letting it slide closer to their leg and hopefully out of sight. If their attacker was willing to let them get close, then Chara wasn't going to let their one shot go to waste.

Chara approached, careful to keep both eyes on the axe. Finally, they were close enough to reach out to Superior dog. One shot. Only one shot. They had this. Chara took a breath before lunging forward with their knife-

 **(No!)**

Chara's lunge was thrown off by the shout in their mind. Their own body swerved as it went out of their control for the briefest of seconds. Superior Dog stepped backwards, but before anything else could happen, Asriel decided that standing around was useless. And by that, Chara meant that he decided to start glowing cyan and bombarding the two with magical energy like the huge help he was.

"Blue is for stop signs! Better watch out kid."

Superior Dog froze in place. Chara froze too, but their mind was anything but still. Cyan energy shot forward from Asriel's outstretched hand and his eyes glowed the same color. The safe thing to do in this scenario was to stand still. Toriel made sure to teach Chara how the different colors of magic worked. Blue meant stopping. Orange meant moving, Easy stuff. Fundamental stuff. Most monsters were aware to the point that it created a practically Pavlovian reaction in them. Which is why Chara knew that the guard wouldn't follow them if they moved now..

Chara bolted forward.

"Stop kid!"

"Chara no!

Chara rushed forward anyhow as a wave of magic washed over the street. The focus point being Asriel's hand meant that a cone covered the entire width of the street and consequently Superior Dog and Chara. Moving meant risking their life.

 **(Hp 82/92)**

Asriel's magic felt like a warm blanket that was lit on fire by an arsonist during their sleep. It hurt, chipping away at their hp score and opening up wounds that Asriel's magic healed only minutes ago. Chara wheezed with pain, but they still had the strength of mind to stumble over to Asriel's side.

"No! Bad Kid! Sit!" Superior Dog lunged forward to restrain them, but the waves of magic hit Superior Dog head on and forcing them to freeze. The magic slamming into the two came in sporadic waves too difficult to anticipate to try moving if one wasn't a stubborn lord of demons.

"Golly, Chara, I can't stop it!" Chara saw Asriel try and wrench the magic out of their path to stop the pain, but since Superior Dog was standing still for only one reason, sacrifices had to be made.

 **(76/92)**

Chara seized Asriel's hand to keep it still pointing at Superior Dog. Waves of energy spontaneously burst forward at an irregular rate that would be too difficult to cross They froze too in order to let the bombardment stop. "Asriel, I have a plan. You need to keep her still!"

"Chara, no!"

"Chara Yes!

 **(55/92)**

Chara lunged one last time, their legs pounding with a herculean effort that shoved them out of the way of Asriel's stupid magical attack. Once free, Chara took a single, precious moment to breath. Superior Dog was completely still, but for how long? Asriel's magical patterns were already slowing down

"You're going to hurt-!" Whatever Superior Dog was going to say after that was cut off when another burst of cyan energy passed through her, forcing their attacker to freeze where she stood. Meanwhile, Asriel started shouting at Chara, but for the life of them, they didn't know what it was. In fact, Chara felt a bit woozy, like their ears were popping after being held underwater for too long. Then, their eyes fell on the only thing left on the street, the abandoned hot dog cart with pictures of some sort of animal on it.

 **(It's a Hot Cat Cart…)**

The abandoned hot dog cart that Chara dodged earlier found itself being shoved forward. With their red soul pounding from the damage it took by Asriel's sudden decision to specialize in cyan magic and being a pain in the neck, Chara took the hotdog cart and shoved it forward with one huge push.

"Move Asriel!"

"Move, why... Chara No!" Asriel threw himself to the ground as the hot dog cart came whizzing past, rolling down the street. When he hit the ground, his fur stopped glowing that spectral color and the magic assaulting the street cut short. Too late for Superior Dog though because Chara's

improvised missile fired towards Superior Dog, who had time only to widen their eyes before the heavy cart slammed into them.

"Run Asriel!"

Chara didn't wait to see how much damage their weapon did, instead grabbing Asriel's hand to drag him as fast their arms could support his weight. The two hurtled into the nearest alleyway only to take another turn the minute one offered itself. Chara took one tumultuous turn and twist after another, all with the hope that they could shake off pursuit. Meanwhile, Asriel, was also being helpful.

"Chara, that was stupid! You moron! Idiot! Trash Bag!"

Chara couldn't wipe the smile from their face even as Asriel whined. The road to home, or rather, the path to New home was only a bit further. The two were free. Free to wait for Asgore to fix everything like he always did. Free to go back to hiding in the shadows of their family, and free to never again emerge in a hostile world. Safe from the hypocrisy and the biting panic in their chest. Safe from broken promises. Safe from pursuit. Or were they?

Chara looked behind them to see if Superior Dog found which alley they cut through. By doing so, their head turned for the whole second needed for Chara to slam straight into the chest of another monster. Rough arms grabbed their shoulders, but Chara stopped playing games an hour ago. The demon plunged their knife into the monster's chest. Or rather, they swung and a immediately had their hand grabbed before the blade could hit its mark.

"Careful kid. Might poke someone's eye out. Wouldn't want to give your dad another reason to fire me."

"Undyne." Chara spat at the ground. Undyne was still wearing her leather jacket from a few hours ago but Chara knew that going without battle-armor wouldn't so much as slow her down. Undyne was deadly. Forget been pursued by guards the whole way. The biggest threat stood in front of them. Undyne hated Chara after all. This wasn't an impersonal betrayal, no it was personal. Next to Undyne stood a skeleton wearing a blue hoodie and the dopiest expression on his face. But Chara couldn't tear their eyes away from the one that hated them the most.

"Anyway kiddo. I'm glad I was the one to catch up to you." Undyne's smile didn't fit the situation. Why smile like something relieved her burdens? Only a madman. Woman. Fish. Only a mad fish would smile like that. Why didn't they see it before? Undyne already tried to kill them when they first met, Chara should have known better to let their guard down around things like nothing to it. Chara freed their arm the only way they could-

By applying their teeth directly to Undyne's arm.

* * *

Undyne hated her life. She really did.

"Relax kid! I'm not going to hurt you." Undyne swung her arm to try and dislodge the bite of the small human child. She even used more care than the situation really called for which would probably put her in the kid's good books when they weren't busy BITING HER DAMN ARM!

Undyne's grip on Chara's knife weakened, sending the blade twirling to the ground with one overestimated swing. Undyne's attention was still on removing the human, but Chara's eyes followed the blade as it went falling. The moment the knife clanged against the pavement, Chara unhinged their human teeth with their human detachable jaw just like that one human documentary illustrated. Chara lunged towards the knife, scrambling to the ground to grab it and shakily stand back up in an approximated defensive stance.

"If you're going to stab me, at least don't leave yourself so wide open while trying!" Undyne scolded, but in her own mind, her words were deafened by the sight of the poor kid covered in bruises. Chara's side looked the worst of the lot, as if someone had taken a crowbar and slammed it into their side, but the rest of their injuries weren't jokes either. Chara wasn't bleeding and even stood more or less upright, but that was a small mercy. Whatever healing magic they used was a patchy job at best. Undyne could tell because the bruises were tinged green and occasionally sparked. They needed medical attention soon.

"Kid…"

"Shut up!" Chara pointed their knife at Undyne albeit in a slightly more grounded stance which Undyne probably would have complemented if the situation allowed for it. Hey, the weight had to be distributed or any flying kick could knock them over!

Chara coughed, a sudden and wracking gasp that politely reminded Undyne that there was a time and place for everything. She could help the kid with their stance at a later date. "Look kid. That doesn't look too good, and you might start melting the ground if it starts bleeding your acid blood."

"What?" Chara froze, still sprung into neat coils like an arrow notched at the bowstring and ready to fly forward. Undyne paused too. Moving any more might startle both rugrats. Asriel, who had remained silent during the entire confrontation still looked ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Or at least what Undyne was allowed to see of them, since Chara was covering him. The kid was like an angry housecat, all puffed up and trying to make itself look bigger to scare off attackers.

Undyne took a slow step forward. The smart thing to do would be act carefully and as non-aggravating as possible.

"Hey, while it's knife to meet you too, why don't we put the sharp object down?" Sans appeared right next to Chara and things went sideways faster than Mew Mew Kissy's season Two finale.

"Shut up you smiley trash bag!"

Oh golly. Asriel stepped out from behind Chara and it didn't look pretty. If the human looked like they were dragged around the city by one leg, Asriel looked like he took a beating from the entire countryside. His legs were swaying in place and a glazed look came over his yellow eyes. Hell, were they always that color? Didn't matter because despite nearly falling down where he stood, he could still send a burst of orange magic straight at Sans.

Sans didn't even widen his eyes, making no move to dodge out of the way or simply not having the reflexes to avoid it or step out of the danger. Undyne's feet started moving before she could even think, she slammed into Sans and pushed him away from the blast.

"I had that!" Sans mumbled into the pavement, but Undyne didn't care for his sass.

"You were standing still!" Did you want to get hurt?"

You know who wasn't standing still? Yeah, Chara grabbed Asriel's hand the moment Undyne moved out of range and shoved him behind their shield of fake confidence. Now they were clinging to his arm with one hand while shaking a knife at Undyne with the other, so that Undyne couldn't get to the Prince without going through the knife.

"Asriel, get down. I'll take care of this." Chara's killer gaze was actually unsteady, like they couldn't focus their stare and keep it still. Asriel, quite rightly in Undyne's opinion, shoved Chara's shoulder at their display.

"Chara you're hurt!" He grabbed their sweater and pulled, but Chara didn't stop pointing the knife at Undyne. Both kids looked like they could do with a long nap. Yeah Asgore was going to kill her

"How about you both relax before you fall over!" Undyne raised her empty hands with those harsh words. The kid could see that she was weaponless. Good. Weaponless meant less likely to be aggressive. In actuality, Undyne didn't need weapons to kick their butts, but they didn't need to know that. Undyne started walking towards the two to grab them by the ears and drag them home.

Chara immediately stepped forward to cover Asriel despite his bleating to the contrary. Ready to stand in front of the murderous guard that was ready to kill them after being foiled so many times. It was an exact repeat of their confrontation in the palace despite the fact that Undyne had no intention of harming them.

"Look, would it kill you to rela-."

Oof. She said kill. Bad choice of words. Undyne didn't mean to put her foot in her mouth like that. She never did. At least in this situation, it only meant that the person Undyne was trying to help dash forward and try to plunge their knife into Undyne's chest. You know, minor consequences

 _CLANG!_

Chara's knife stuck into the spear Undyne conjured at the last minute, mere inches away from cutting their jacket. Which sucked because Undyne liked this jacket! Alphys once complimented her in it...

"You should probably stop broadcasting your moves like that." Chara's eyes widened at Undyne's comment, but when they tried to pull their knife away, the blade didn't slip out neatly. It was stuck for a precious second.

Now, normally, Undyne would kick their opponent to knock them over, but that strangely didn't apply to the child trying to fillet her. Instead Undyne made her spear disappear and jumped back when the kid went stumbling.

"Com on kid. I don't know what to tell you! Let's put down that knife and get you to your dad."

Chara shook their head, pulling their knife closer to their chest. "I bet you'll stab me from behind the moment I put my knife down." But with their words, their eyes widened. They turned to their back, slashing out with their knife to parry the spear that never came.

Undyne didn't let this opportunity slip away. She hurled her spear at Chara, but instead of aiming to injure, Undyne let her green magic wash over the soul of the human. The dark red heart that represented their soul changed color like a water cooler when a drop of food coloring was added. The green magic chained their soul to the ground. When Chara grit their teeth and tried to attack, Undyne stood stock still and let the kid swing. Their feet couldn't budge an inch despite all their empty knife whirled just out of reach of Undyne, slashing against empty air.

"Really? Green magic, who in their right mind uses that?" If glares could kill, Undyne would be dead. As it was, all Chara was doing was reminding her of the picture Asgore kept in an old frame of Undyne's first day of training. Little brat with attitude far bigger than actually ability? Killer gazes? Obsession with sharp objects? this kid was practically the second coming of Undyne. Or was it the first because time shenanigans?

"Look kid. You're panicking. Let's get going before more guards get back. Sans can you take both of them?" Undyne called out to the open air. When she turned around, Sans shook his head slowly.

"One's the limit."

"Shut up trash bag! We're not going with you!" Asriel poked his head out from behind Chara. Sans actually made a face at that, barring his white teeth in a tighter smile. Undyne made a face too. Of course the kind of face differed.

"Fwhahahahaha! How'd you think trash bag anyway? I mean, it's pretty hilarious, but I would have gone with bonehead!" You know when he wasn't sassing her, Asriel's comments could be kinda funny. Not as good as Undyne's comments though. In fact, her comment caused his face to colour through a whole range of emotions as he processed Undyne's praise. Good for him! None of those emotions were murder. Probably. Maybe. Okay, they definitely were, but Undyne could work with murder.

"Ha. Ha. A real comedian you are. You really goat me." Sans deadpanned at the two.

"All of you shut up!" Chara waved their knife around again, careful not to accidentally cut Asriel but still wielding it in a hazardous fashion. "We're not going anywhere with you! You tried to kill us!" They scowled, taking a step forward and once again pointing their knife at Undyne, who probably would be taking this a lot harder if she herself wasn't overly fond of dramatically pointing with magical spears.

"Look kid. I'm fed up with this-."

Only Chara wasn't listening, instead turning their head down to their own chest and crying out. "Alphys is even here! How can I set them up on a date in the middle of combat? Tell me o wise one!"

The words echoed against the empty walls as everyone present went silent. Undyne felt something burning on her face, but whatever it was, it wasn't the implication of taking Alphys on a date. Certainly not.

"So ummm." Sans breached the awkward silence. "Was that talking to yourself or your imaginary friend?"

"Shut up! They're not imaginary!"

"Just only you can see them." Sans shrugged.

Chara said nothing, so Asriel stepped up the pace of abuse being hurled around. "Just leave us alone you stubborn morons! I'm not going with you! I know how this story ends. I always know when it ends!" His face twisted as he spoke those words. "Shut up! Shut up! Sh-shut…"

"Azzy?"

"Prince?"

"Kid I don't know?"

Undyne bit back a curse when Asriel's legs gave out on him. Because only a few things could have made this situation worse, and Asriel collapsing was certainly one of them. Undyne lunged and caught the guy as he fell, making sure that he didn't hit the ground. Her knees buckled against the pavement, but Asriel didn't go kissing the street.

Only, something was off about his body. His fur was burning hot, to the point that Undyne was forcibly reminded of Hotland. Burning was actually a good word because the fur began to be tinged with an orange coloring. He'd been using orange magic before, so maybe that was the problem? No. He wouldn't be burning up because of orange magic. His body felt like fire, to the point that Undyne could feel herself melting in the heat...

Melting. Melting. Why did that make her eye hurt? Why did that make so much sense? But Asriel was overloading on magic. That shouldn't be possible! His body should be able to handle that! He was a boss monster? What could be filling him with so much energy that his body began to crumble?

 **(I dunno, the determination to survive?)**

Well, As important as it was to worry about the fallen prince, all Undyne could think about was the sharp edge of the knife right at her neck.

"Let him go! Let us go!" Undyne's could feel Chara's hand trembling at their neck but that wasn't what drew her gaze. No, the human child was staring down at Undyne with watery eyes that glowed in the shadows. Some might have called them cruel eyes. Just a few hours ago, Undyne might have agreed. But now? No, how could she mistake hate for pure fear?

"Chara." The name felt awkward in her mouth, but Chara looked towards them anyway. Their shaking hand stilled as their crying eyes blinked away tears. "Look. He's unconscious and needs help. Let me do my damn job."

"Killing us!"

"Helping you guys!" Undyne took a risk. She started to stand up with the semi-conscious form of Asriel in her hands and that cold knife against her neck. "I'm sorry for what I did earlier in the castle, but Asgore asked me to help you!"

"You hate us." But their voice was uncertain and the knife started to shake again.

"Occupational hazard." Only, Undyne flashed a confident smile. Despite all odds, she still smiled even if inside she felt as trapped as she did under the mountain. But she smiled, and tightened her grip on Asriel. "Besides, you're not actually that bad kid. Scared? Maybe. But you know what I see? I see a kid too worried about everyone else to get things right. But you care about people, so you try anyway. That ring a bell?"

"I don't care what you think. And you're wrong!"

"It doesn't matter what you think. I'm the babysitter. Yelling at you and telling fake stories is my job." Chara gazed forward for what felt like a cold eternity, a chill touch around the neck of any. Undyne took a slow breath and felt her neck near the edge of that cold knife. If she kicked out, Undyne could escape the knife grip. But that wasn't what she needed to do to establish trust now was it? "

"Just help Asriel..." Chara let those last words linger, but perhaps they didn't need to say anything. Their knife slipped away, finally allowing Undyne to stand up and shift the fallen prince to a better spot. Chara just covered their eyes with their hair, not reaching Undyne's eyes and too tensed up to do anything but place a hand in one of Asriel's empty hands.

Undyne couldn't reach forward to grab Chara's shoulder for a reassuring hug, since her hands were too full. Even if the kid looked like they needed one, Undyne probably wasn't the best choice. Still, what Undyne could do was shift Asriel's weight to one hand and make a thumbs up with the other. "Let's get you two home. Sans?"

Sans wordlessly took out a hot dog from his pocket, appearing at Chara's side like he'd always been there and held up a hand offering the food. "I'm no scientist, but I'm sure Alphys will be able to look at goat-boy. Why don't you fix that meatbag of yours? Go on it's magic." He winked, waving the hot dog in front of their face.

Chara's grip tightened around their knife, but they snatched the food away like someone who hasn't eaten for days, cramming it into their mouths to the point their cheeks were stuffed like a chipmunks.

"Just so you know, you're still the worst babysitter ever." And as privately as Undyne agreed with them, she had her sense of self-respect to care about.

Hahahaha! Nah, the kid could have that one. No, right now Undyne had a bigger problem to worry about. Like just what was wrong with the prince? She didn't even know how to start helping, but luckily, Undyne knew exactly the gorgeous scientist to call.

* * *

 **Unexpected delays occurred, but we're back on track for the last few chapters.**


	13. In Which the Demon and The Hero Talk

"C-come on. Pick up! You gave me this n-number for a reason!"

Undyne wasn't returning her calls. Asgore wasn't picking up the phone either, so Alphys couldn't do the responsible thing and warn him. Alphys wasn't even sure if Sans had a phone she could try calling. In fact, the only luck she was having was the bad fortune of increasingly demanding voice messages from Captain Astigmatism which she really couldn't stave off forever. Yeah, Alphys was a big help to the group...

Alphys leaned back on the swivel chair, not realizing that the action would make the seat tip over with the combined weight of all her own anxiety. Tip over it did, sending her flying against the dirty floors of the Hotland Laboratory. Alphys coughed up the dirt layer that came from years of being cleaned with the barest amount of effort, but dirty floors were the least of her problems right now. The operating tables were wheeled up front for all to view, and seeing as the laboratory was once the main through-way for visiting monsters, she'd probably need to straighten up all the papers and dust balls and her unopened boxes of stuff before she reopened.

Later she'd fix the place up for passage, but right now, even the monitor had spider webs obscuring the screen which made trying to use the cameras an even more difficult task considering Alphys couldn't exactly reach the monitor to clear it up. Maybe when she finished building the real body for Hapstablo-

 _Mew-Mew Kissy! Mew-Mew Kissy!_

Alphys dove forward, an unsightly move from an uncoordinated scientist, but that was Undyne's ringtone which meant she could finally be helpful!

"Heya Alphys?"

"U-Undyne! You're okay! Did you h-have any luck?" Oh and thank the angel that Undyne didn't see Alphys in her natural state, a massive mess of a life. She leaned back onto the chair again and nearly repeated her earlier performance of toppling over.

"Alphys, we've got a problem!" Undyne's question caused Alphys to jerk out of her self-inflicted tirade. "How do you check for magical overload?"

"Ummm." Alphys majored in robotics and technology instead of biology, but she knew some things at least. Enough to be helpful. "W-well normally you have to build up enough TP, I mean Tension Points, to use a spell, but if you don't use that charge over a prolonged fight, magical fatigue can build up."

"Does it make you burn to the touch?"

"N-not usually. I can look up more though!" Alphys were a couple of old biology textbooks left over from the old days lying on the operating tables up front.

"Better look fast, Sans is about to come over with the prince."

"You found them! Wait what about the human? Are they both hurt?"

A whoosh of air and a grunt of pain from Undyne answered Alphys's question. A thud, from what Alphys assumed was an elbow being jabbed into Undyne's stomach, was followed by Chara's soft but rather insistent voice. "Take care of Asriel. He's the stupid one. You better take care-"

It sounded like the phone was being yanked back and forth. The last part of the sentence got cut short with a brief struggle before Undyne reclaimed the call. "Yeah, I have the kid."

"You feel like names could be utilized more effectively. Fish."

"At least I stopped calling you brat! The least you can do is not attack me."

"Oh look, a fishbowl. Go stick your head in it."

The phone cut off. Oh Well. It seemed like Undyne had that under control! That was good even if Alphys was left with more questions than answers. Should she start clearing up? Get the textbook? Go back to calling the king? Alphys spun herself on her swivel chair. At least Undyne sounded like she was getting along with the kid...

Alphys wasn't sure exactly when she gained an audience. One second, it was just her and the collection of Mew-Mew collectible figures from the prequel episode that she loved to run on the television back at home, and the next second, a hand was on her back.

"Ahh!"

"No. You're Alphys, nice try pronouncing that though." Sans, half the reason Alphys kept jumping at the slightest noises for fear of midnight pranks, smiled. That smile became a little forced when his legs almost buckled under the weight of a furry, comatous body…

"What's wrong with the prince?" Alphys managed to stutter out, grabbing a hold of the unconscious boss monster and helping Sans carry the boy to one of the old operating tables. Oh no..no...no. His fur was burning hot, rivaling the temperatures that Alphys braved to reach the Royal Laboratory.

With one swoop of her tail, she cleared off the papers she'd had yet to decipher and helped Sans lay the a-actual r-royalty on her messy operating table. Oh this was bad...

The minute the prince was safely placed down, Sans crashed against the floor, feet first with his hoodie sprawled out to act as a sort of pillow. On his back, Sans lifted his hand to wave off Alphys' s helping hand. "Nah, I'm good. The floor's a friend."

"S-sans, you're a bigger mess than I am!"

I'm just exhausted. I was working all last Knight to help Papyrus with his presentation for why he should be a guard member." Was that K intentional? How did Alphys even hear the pun…

Didn't matter. Once she was sure that Sans wasn't in danger of melting, she turned her attention to the one who could very well begin turning to goo. Alphys ran a claw over the Prince's forehead and reeled back as it s-sizzled. Her claw actually sizzled from the heat! His chest was going up and down as he breathed air, looking for all intents and purposes like he was just asleep. His fur, on the other hand, practically simmered with the faintest glimmer of an orange glow.

"What's going on? He's practically radiating magic…"

"He was glowing earlier doc. I think Undyne was too busy trying not to get knifed to notice. I think the temperature's too high too, but I don't have the kind of thick skin needed for this kind of job."

Alphys gently ran her claws over Asriel's fur and drew it back when it continued to burn. "I don't know what I can do. I don't even know what's going on. It's like his body is… well terminating? De-terminating?" Some of the old papers she'd been reading in the old scientist's office had been talking a little about stuff like this, but she could have sworn she'd seen something like this before in her own notes...

Sans smile didn't fall, but it did become rather forced. "Emotional stress maybe? Must be pretty hard to deal with all these feelings after going so long without…"

"What are you talking about?" Only, her mind finally processed in full his earlier statements, particular involving the woman she may or may not be in total love with. Alphys whirled around. "W-wait! What do you mean Undyne almost got knifed?"

"Huh. I thought you would have gotten that point a little earlier." His emphasis on point only made Alphys throw a sheet of paper at him. She would have thrown something heavier too if Asriel didn't chose to groan out load and shift in place.

"Sans, get some water bottles from the kitchenette. They're next to the k-ketchup!"

Probably his ketchup all things said and done. He was in charge of… something here. Alphys couldn't quite recall what since she was busy trying to to get a reading of the prince's temperature with the magical thermometers she found lying on one of the other operating tables. She poked the fur with the reader and let it scan the prone prince.

"Abnormality of Green Magic detected."

Alphys blinked. "What?" That couldn't be right. The prince shouldn't even be able to use green magic! Why would green magic be causing the fur to burn anyway?" Only, Alphys couldn't feel anymore heat, instead his temperature seemed to drop to a point where Alphys' hand felt like it was grasping ice.

"Please.. Stop doing this… And just let me win!"

Asriel began muttering to himself, beginning to toss and turn on the table. His fur was no longer glowing but green vines began to circle around his arms and his hands began to spark with flashes of light...

THUD THUD THUD!

Alphys jumped when someone knocked on the door, banging on the metal like they were using some sort of blunt object to knock the door over. Did Captain Astigmatism finally wise himself up and send someone to check on why Alphys wasn't cooperating? If they did, she wasn't in any condition to stave them off. Asriel was close to some sort of threshold that he wouldn't recover from. She needed time t-to s-study the illness...

THUD THUD THUD!

"I-I'm not here!" Alphys skillfully lied. "This is ummm. A voice recording? Y-yeah! No one here!"

The banging on the door stop, and for one sweet second of relief, Alphys thought that they bought the lie. That relief quickly shifted to dread when the door opened and things went worse than the season finale plot twist of Mew-Mew Kissy; the Backstory to the Prequel.

"Alphys? Have you been working in this mess again? I thought I told you not to work on projects in filth. Bad enough I've had to walk the rest of the way with this egomaniac!" Alphys' old professor, Look-At-Me walked through the door. That grey and green gremlin clutched a metal walking stick that he probably used to knock on the door before opening it using some flaw in the security system that Alphys had yet to even examine.

It got worse too for Alphys' heart because he was followed at an awkward distance by a fuming Captain Lionbrow, with his tail swishing in place back and two strode through the laboratory in a familiar if not easy going way, through the filth and grime.

Alphys desperately tried to shield the prince from sight with her own body. Of course, this was stupid, but she was hyperventilating and really didn't have a better option or explanation. The way both the visitor's faces turned from surprise to horror told her how effective her attempt was.

"What's going on here? Is that… Is that the prince, Alphys?" Look-at-Me gripped his walking stick tighter. His gaze brought her back to her time as a student and once again she couldn't think of any of her achievements or praises. She was just what she always was, a trembling mess. Who was she kidding when she said she was competent? Even with a PHD, she was nothing but a sham. A fraud. An intern who couldn't even help a child. Couldn't stand up for the woman she loved.

Lionbrow snapped his fingers. "Explain this intern. I didn't go crawling through this heat for a stuttering mess." With just his harsh words, she was reduced to an intern trailing behind her betters.

Wait. He said prince. Not just any boss monster, but the prince?

Lionbrow's next question muddied the waters further. "The human must be nearby. I thought that the flunkie was watching them at New Home." Lionbrow mused, curling his hand into a fist.

They knew about Asgore's kids, but they were still staring in shock and something akin to malice. And what did Lionbrow mean by flunkie? Did he mean Undyne? What was he doing here anyway? The royal laboratory was nowhere near the castle! Did they know where Asgore went?

"Is that you Kris? Frisk, they're hurt!"

Asriel shifted in place, his hands shaking as vines wrapped around his body and rendered all other questions pointless. He was mumbling to himself, calling out nonsense names and dying because Alphys couldn't help him.

Alphys 's scanner was showing an influx of magic in the prince's body with no where to go. She was surrounded by the crowding faces of her superiors and couldn't speak. Everyone was counting on her, and she couldn't keep up the pace.

"What's going on Alphys?"

"Where is the human, intern? I won't ask you again."

The prince was going to die. She couldn't deal with magical flow. She couldn't help Undyne-

" _You're not an intern. You're a doctor! Doctor Alphys! Asgore believes in you and it's not like I haven't stopped!"_

Undyne words echoed back in her head, whispering past the yelling of her heart and the toxic miasma of fear. Alphys took a breath. And another. She was a doctor. Yeah, that was right. She was the doctor now. She needed to be in control. Right. She was the doctor Undyne was counting on! Undyne who spoke up about the death robot and her channeler! Ridiculous, over the top Undyne believed in her, so why shouldn't Alphys believe in Undyne's judgement!

"T-the prince is currently-" Their stares mocked her. Their glares chastised her, but Alphys wouldn't be swayed. She needed to be brave. Like her favorite characters in anime. Like Undyne. "The prince is currently going through magical burnout while simultaneously developing symptoms for excessive use. And unless you underwent multiple courses in soul magic at the collegiate level, you'll understand why I'm not talking to you right now."

Oh gosh. Undyne made it look so easy…

No, Undyne believed in her. She believed in her inventions like the nonfunctional war machine and the unreliable soul channeler-

The device made to work with soul magic.

The device made to work with soul magic and channel it in a healthy and safe way.

Alphys brought her claws to her forehead in shame, already devising a way to connect her channeler to the problem. Asriel was experiencing an overload of power,and Alphys had been sitting on the solution this entire time. Alphys barreled towards the box of her things that she had yet to unpack, but Lionbrow still stood in her way. His eyes had bags like he'd been not sleeping, but now any signs of exhaustion were ignored with the anger in his eyes. Anger that Alphys needed to face pass.

"Intern."

Undyne believed in her. Asgore believed in her. S-she believed in herself

"Captain Lionbrow. Sans will fill you in, He's fetching supplies in the kitchen. Professor Look-at-me, either go with him or s-shut up and help."

Lionbrow flinched back, perhaps by the audacity of her suggestion, but Alphys was already brushing past the two of them to the box of her supplies. Her mind began turning like a contraction of cogs, trying to puzzle out exactly how to work out this hunch of hers. The prince wouldn't be left alone, even if her hands were shaking and her heart wouldn't stop tiptoeing on a highwire. Her claws wrapped around the channeler and brought it forward like the tool for their salvation.

She wouldn't fail. She was trusted. Alphys turned around, to her two intruders, still standing in the way. Those that didn't believe in her.

"And one more thing! I'm not an intern. It's doctor Alphys!"

Alphys smiled because it was the kind of thing Undyne would say. Her heart was free for now of all but one last, slightly important problem. What was taking Sans so long?

* * *

Now a responsible babysitter would have yelled at the small child tossing a knife up and down while sitting with their back to a wall. The situation called for it. Chara refused to meet Undyne's gaze for the past few minutes, instead choosing to hide their gaze under long bangs that covered their eyes from the terrors of a world. They were like a child, hiding in a blanket from the boogeymen in the darkness. Well, they were also tossing a knife up and down. Admittedly, the look was ruined by that one fact, but a responsible babysitter would quickly fix both problems.

Good thing Undyne was even cooler than a "responsible babysitter."

"The weight's in the hilt. Since it's not balanced for throwing, you have to compensate with that in mind during the toss."

Chara said nothing. Their hand stilled as they caught the knife in one last throw and let it fall back into place at their side. For all the world, Chara looked like they wanted to pull a hoodie over the head and ignore Undyne's attempts at conversation.

Too bad they didn't have a hoodie. And you know what? Undyne didn't care about their too good for talking attitude! Undyne was going to make friends with them and stick it right in their face! Okay, friends was a bit much. That bridge could be crossed later. Getting on speaking terms was first on the list. However, it wasn't Undyne who needed to break the silence.

"The comedian is running late."

"You know, you don't even know the guy, and you can tell he's a joke!" Undyne tried breaking the ice, but Chara just stared daggers at her for a long, drawn out and exasperated second.

"Just as long as he helps Asriel." Chara whispered before looking away from Undyne and hiding their eyes from the light. Undyne sighed in exasperation. How could she even begin to connect with the kid if they wouldn't even look her in the eyes? It was a challenge Undyne could take only because of her pure stubbornness.

Undyne folded her legs, sitting down in a mirror of Chara's position against the brick wall. The move drew Chara's eye to them once more, and Undyne hesitantly began the befriending process.

"So what was the stupid plan back at home anyway? Distract me for a whole ten seconds so you can run off?"

Okay so Undyne really didn't have that many friends alright? It was the best she could do given past circumstances. Chara shook their head, letting the bangs from their hair cover their eyes. "Bold of you to assume the plan was anything more."

"It worked didn't it?"

"Says more about you than anything we came up with." Chara went quiet for a second, leaning on their arm and sitting back. "We just have a bad history with making plans. Should have known that monsters would have killed the first child they saw."

Their voice was bitter and rather pointedly, Undyne got the picture that she might be a little bit at fault here.

"You know kid, there were two humans that fell before you too. How were we supposed to react to another one?"

Chara's head immediately snapped to Undyne's. "Humans?"

Their hands wrapped around that knife of theirs with a grip that almost made their hands begin to bruise. Hell, the might even bleed if that kid held on any tighter which would be bad because Undyne didn't know how to handle flesh-eating human blood. Speaking of humans, Undyne wasn't exactly sure how to take that tone of theirs. The way Chara said the word, it was like a tier two swear word.

Undyne didn't know how to take that, so she settled on just answering the unspoken question.

"Yeah, two humans. They fell a couple of years ago. Back when I was a kid even younger than you."

"Asgore never said anything." Chara muttered, and that threw Undyne for a loop.

Did Asgore never tell them about the humans? Undyne quickly thought back to when she made Asgore confess about the war. There had been crying and a mention of starting a war, but Asgore never actually elaborated on any humans falling down now did he? Did that mean that Chara didn't know about the change in attitude? Geez. Asriel and Chara probably got to meet only the best of monsterkind when they were still alive, so it wasn't like they'd have experience with real aggression. If their only interactions with monsters went back to when they were alive, some aspects of their behavior made sense. People probably would be more likely to give out free candy then harass kids, and if Undyne knew only one thing, it was that the human was just a kid...

Undyne once again needed to be the one to break an unpleasant truth. What was she even doing? Wasn't she supposed to be a hero? That's what her future self and or self image said. Undyne didn't do subtle. She didn't do nice. Why did she have to be the one to talk about feelings? Here was a kid that that made jokes about humanity. Passing jokes that Undyne might ignore if not for the way they piled up in her mind, instance after instance of sly comment and wry looks. How was Undyne supposed to relate to that? Probably rather well, but she didn't know how to even start talking.

And now Chara was clutching the knife so hard that blood began to steep down the handle...

Wait, that wasn't good-

Chara's eyes followed the blood, but they made no move to lessen their grip. In fact, they were shaking and damn if Undyne didn't want to slam a fist into a wall because of it. Instead of such a therapeutic action, She choose to take the sacrificial option. Undyne took her jacket off then placed a hand on the hem of her shirt and ripped. The cloth tore easily, ripping one of her favorite shirts to the barest of a midriff, but all for a good cause. She held the ruined shirt out with one hand to the bleeding child.

Chara looked blankly at the offered gift, making no move save to place the knife on the ground, where the bloodstained and dirt hilt mocked the two of them. Undyne rolled her eyes, but she gently placed the cloth around the kid's injured hand. "Here, it's for the flesh-eating blood."

Chara said nothing. Undyne sighed and began to wrap the piece of cloth around their hand, pressing to staunch the flow of blood. Binding the remains of her shirt to Chara's hand, Undyne hoped at the very least this peace offering would put them on speaking terms. It was too quiet, here in between the streets of the city. To be honest, Undyne liked the quiet only when she felt brave enough to break up the silence of solitude.

Undyne finished tying the cloth into a knot, still waiting for Chara to say something. Say anything. Undyne stood up when the injury was fully covered. "You know I hope I don't start melting now."

"It doesn't melt. Blood that is."

Undyne grinned when she heard the kid speak at last. "Really? I thought the one anime said it would melt steel."

"If my blood could melt steel what would cloth do to stop the flow?"

"You never know." Undyne shrugged. "You might have a weaker strain of the mutant bacteria."

Chara wasn't smiling but they weren't frowning either. Just a neutral expression that Undyne couldn't get a read on. At least the kid was actually facing them now and deining to grace Undyne with their silent two were quiet for another moment. Yeah. If Undyne didn't want this stalemate to drag on, then she was going to have to be the one to break it.

Undyne was good at breaking things.

"Did you know I grew up hearing about how bloodthirsty humans are?"

Nailed it. When Chara said nothing, Undyne continued, closing her eyes as the memories of her dramatic backstory came back.

"Way back when, two humans fell. During that once upon a time. I was a brat even younger than you are." Undyne laughed and for the first time, a smile cracked on Chara's face. "Yeah, I was a menace, but that's not the story."

Undyne sat back down so that the kid was eye level.

"The first and second human to fall down happened pretty much all at once. The second is the one that everyone remembers though. Brave little shit or so the stories say."

Chara snorted to themselves, then blinked, like they didn't expect that reaction out of themselves. Undyne gave them a minute to compose themselves before continuing.

"So anyway, this human came out of those old ruins and started picking a fight with everyone. There were-" She slowed as the words failed to come to mind. "There were close calls."

"What did the human do?" Chara's eyes were fully on Undyne's now, in rapt attention. Something in their question was strained like they knew the answer already and just waiting for Undyne to say the dreaded words she didn't want to acknowledge.

"I heard a whole platoon of The Royal guards showed up. Real effective fighters too. Kept trying to talk to the human and make friends." Undyne felt her breath hitch. Slight as it was, Chara's eyes flickered in movement for a second before darting back to eye contact.

Undyne shifted tactics. "You know I don't actually remember my parents? Not all that much. I just remember everyone else telling me that they died like heroes." Quite against her will, her eyes glanced up towards the sky, but it wasn't really the sky now was it? It was only the rock taunting Undyne like everyday in the dark.

Chara's hand was clenched up again despite what stinging the action probably caused. "Heroes aren't real." Chara whispered.

"Whatcha mean? You're looking at one right now!" Undyne jokes, pointing at their chest and striking a pose. Chara just raised an eyebrow. Undyne snorted to herself in laughter then sighed.

"Look. I sprang this story on you without any context, but what happened already happened. Can't punch a human in the face for any reason other than it being personal." Undyne winced at that word choice, bringing a hand to scratch the back of her neck with embarrassment. When Chara said nothing, Undyne took one last breath and bit the bullet.

"Sorry. Kid, I want you to know I'm sorry about trying to kill you. I was wrong."

"You weren't though."

Undyne flinched. Chara's response was matter of fact. The kid even cracked the beginning of a smile but it sure as hell wasn't a real one.

The vein next to Undyne's eye twitched. What did this kid want? She just apologized! What was she supposed to do? Sing a song about forgiveness? "Look. All I've got is an empty apology, but you be sure that it's truthful. I mean what I say. I am sorry."

"Sorry for what?" They ran their fingernails over their arm, scraping the skin like Chara had an itch that wouldn't go away. "You tried to stop the killer human. I actually think that was really cool." And they looked up with stars in their eyes that they didn't bother trying to conceal, but all Undyne could focus on was that sinking feeling in her chest.

"I didn't try and talk! I didn't even try handling it peacefully! I just tried to kill you." Undyne protested.

"Did those fallen human try and talk?" Chara interrupted. That smile was back, but as full of teeth and a leering grin as it was, it felt fake. "Humans are the worst." Chara shrugged their shoulders. "I'm glad monsters wised up about it. You acted bravely."

She acted bravely? Brave was facing unstoppable odds, not putting kids in danger. Wildly throwing spears around, shouting insults, and barging past people she called obstacles. There was bravery and there was desperation. Recklessness. Undyne knew where she fell on the spectrum. Chara was staring at Undyne like what she did was justified. Like she did something to be admired. For once words didn't fail Undyne because she knew exactly what to say. What it really meant to be a hero.

"You're wrong kid. Wanna know why? Because I'm not your father."

"What?" Chara blinked, seeing as Asgore wasn't anywhere in this equation but Undyne was too rubbish at math to be bound by a silly thing like logic.

"I never finished my story now did I?" Undyne smiled. "See. Bravery is what your father did way back when. Because he went to confront the human. And from what the stories say, Asgore didn't backstab anyone or recklessly endanger lives. All he did was go and ask the human to stop."

"The moron! He could have been killed!" Yelling couldn't help the past and objectively speaking, it was obvious that Asgore turned out alright. But, Chara was just like Undyne in all the important ways which is why Undyne knew how to finally connect to to this kid. Maybe two people with similar minds tended to clash, but there was a reason the real phrase was great minds think alike. Undyne and Chara weren't great minds by any means, but that didn't mean the two couldn't feel the same way.

"See. Asgore may be a softy, but he knows how to act courageously." Undyne put a hand on her chest and let her gaze turn to the mountain overhead. "Being brave is remembering how to act well."

"But humans. They would have torn him apart. You can't trust them!"

"It's not just humans who suck kid. You can't trust anyone at first glance. Here's the thing. I grew up hungry, wearing hand-me down clothes and picking fights with anybody who looked at me wrong. Doesn't make them evil. Doesn't make me evil. Truth just is, people can suck."

"Humanity-"

Undyne snapped her fingers, pointing at the kid. "Humanity schmanitty. What I mean to say is that people can do some rotten things, which is why good people are out there too. People like you're dad. He's someone- he's someone. I don't know." Undyne couldn't find the words to describe the king, couldn't put words to the one who meant so much to everyone's hopes and dreams. Good thing she didn't have to find the right words because Chara found them for her.

"Mr…. No, Dad is someone who can look at a feral animal and help pick them up. He's like Asriel. Can look for the best in everyone... " They sniffed, biting back tears that Undyne realized pointing out would only get her knees capped. Chara brought a shaking hand, still trying to fight back tears, and brought out the knife that Undyne was all to familiar with. "He gave me this when I said I liked flowers. It's for gardening." The hilt was still covered in blood, that danced with shadows and tears and words left unsaid.

Undyne nodded. Maybe she understood what the kid was saying in a way. Maybe that knife was covered in blood instead of dirt, but one could only judge something after you really looked at the whole thing. Not just the blade waved in the dark.

Undyne knew what it was like, being trapped in the dark.

"Asgore helped you out didn't he?" Chara asked, looking up to Undyne in perhaps a new light.

Undyne put a hand on Chara's shoulder. A bit brash of them considering that she saw that the kid didn't like human contact, but Undyne was going off the seat of her pants here. Most of her quotes were from anime, but that didn't mean they didn't work. The two weren't best friends by any means, but at the very least, it was a sign of something new when Chara smiled for real at them.

"Did I ever tell you the story of the time I broke Asgore's favorite vase?"

This was the start of something. Undyne could start fixing the rest of the world later, but now, she could start the foundations. Things were looking up.

One last thought bounced in Undyne's head, and it wasn't the most encouraging.

Where the hell was Sans? He really should have been back by now...

"Recruit?"

Undyne whirled her head around as a gruff voice interrupted her. Standing at the end of the alley was an old soldier, his single eye worn down with age and blessed with a kind of harshness that made for a good drill commander. But now, Captain Astigmatism eyed the hand comforting the human fugitive. He eyed Undyne with a downcast, regretful gaze as he raised his sword.

"Treason Undyne? Aiding and hiding the fugitive?"

Ten minutes. It's all Undyne asked for in between this emotional turmoil. Ten stupid minutes.

* * *

 **In a serious note for a change, I have a question about this story. In about two chapters, we finish an arc and shift perspectives quite drastically. Would it be better to continue along in this story or create a whole new story for the new arc themes? I want to know how people might think of this. My original draft ends in two chapters, but I have plot threads that will continue. Is it better to read it all together or in different, shorter pieces?**


	14. In Which Diplomacy Wins Out (HAHAHA NO!)

Chara wasn't shaking or crying. Really, they were just tired. Tired of their heart being wrenched back and forth, in the figurative sense and the literal definition seeing as their soul was being dragged out to a backdrop of green and black magic.

In front of them a tall green gremlin clenched his hand, forcing the red soul in Chara's heart to sally forth to combat. Chara wasn't angry about the fighting. No not really, but Chara didn't have a better term to describe the coldness of an empty heart.

 **( *Is he an old warrior or a walking pun? Astigmatism stands in the way… Yeah sorry, that's all I got. I'm not the one who usually does this* ).**

Chara snorted at the voice's comment. Captain Astigmatism wasn't some old warrior and soon wouldn't even be a walking pun. No, he was just a pile of dust.

"Get out of our way."

The words came easily, almost subconscious in nature. Chara brought a trembling, no a retributive arm, up and clenched the hilt of their knife with their uninjured hand. Chara grinned with a terrifying mess of blackness and their pent up despair.

"I'll end your life right here!" Their creepy faced twisted into a goopy mess of pain and anger that would strike fear into the heart of any.

Of course the effect was ruined when a jacketed arm shoved them back.

"Do me a favor and stop reminding me of myself!"

Undyne moved in front of Chara without a second thought, not even wincing to expose their back to Chara's blade. If they wanted, Chara could plunge it in without any effort. Undyne paid it no mind as she turned to face the sallow and green beast confronting the two. Undyne looked pissed, but seeing as that was her default expression, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the selfless action.

Chara twitched their bandaged arm. The bleeding was gone, and Undyne's tattered remains of a shirt itched like a piece of sandpaper. Not even ten minutes ago Chara would have taken the shot. Undyne understood this. Chara knew this. Ten minutes ago, Chara would have killed Undyne where she stood.

That was ten minutes ago. Chara didn't want to hurt Undyne anymore. Funny. Hilarious even. Chara hated Undyne's guts, but at the same time, they envied how the warrior took charge of a situation even if it was only to laugh at an inappropriate time. Chara knew what it was like to laugh when you shouldn't and perhaps they could understand that slipping sensation of saying the wrong thing at the right time. Oh, and Undyne got along with Asgore! Seeing as Chara got along with Asgore too, it was practically grounds for a ceasefire.

The monster in front of them on the other hand?

 **(Fight or Run?)**

Vengeance would be swift. Chara made a entire career around the concept after all.

Captain Astigmatism, the pun about to be turned into a smear on the pavement, took a step forward. He didn't look worried about the death glares that Chara was sending him, but then again, even Chara's scary face paled in comparison to how pissed off Undyne was.

"Alright! Don't take another step you eyesore! The king asked me to watch over this punk!"

Now, Chara couldn't read Undyne's mind, but her tone kinda gave away the fish's true feelings at the situation. Oh yeah, of course Chara couldn't forget Undyne's bulging eye-vein twitching in quiet fury. Undyne should probably check that out...

 **(Man. I'm glad there isn't a bolder to suplex around here).**

Chara almost giggled out loud, cutting it short at the last second and making an odd sort of _snerk_ or snorting noise depending on your choice of pho-ne-tics, which by the way, took forever to learn and not really relevant to the situation.

Whether it was a snerk, a snort, or even a chortle, Chara ended up making enough of a noise to draw Undyne's attention. Their unexpected protector flashed them a grin full of teeth and hope and reassurance that Chara didn't actually need.

"Relax kid. I've got this.

"I'm not worried." Chara wasn't. Their knife was itching and the stupid Captain Astigmatism would be fighting two on one with Undyne backing their corner. Chara already killed far bEtTeR bEfOrE-

 **(Those thoughts are best let uncovered)...**

Oh yeah. That was why Chara was ignoring the voice in their head. Nothing they said made sense!

Speaking of things that didn't make any sense, the green abomination took a step forward. He chose to ignore Undyne's tactfully delivered warning to the incoming detriment of his health.

"Undyne. The king hasn't talked to anyone for days." Astigmatism's hand was on his sword poised to cut the two of them down in cold-hearted blood, but Undyne had yet to summon any of her spears. In fact, she only looked confused.

"He called a council meeting hours ago! Why the hell aren't you there anyway? Don't tell me Asgore forgot to call you or something!" Undyne's breathing started to become a little obnoxious with in and out whooshes of air. Like Undyne was trying not to snap and break a wall. The kind of breathing you made when trying to stay calm and not fall to pieces thank you very much. Chara dealt with that kind of anger all the time.

It was too bad Astigmatism's next sentence tolled an omen that broke that shred of calm apart.

"Even if there was a council meeting, I'm sure the king would excuse me when I tell him how I was busy getting our fourth soul."

For a moment, everything was still.

Something about that sentence seemed off. Something about that felt fundamentally wrong. It felt like Asriel suddenly deciding to act like a sociopath or Asgore declaring war on humanity. Wait, no. That already happened. Umm Toriel leaving? Alright, a ton of unfortunate things happen within a short time frame, but this one took the cake.

 **(And ate it too...)** The voice's joke would be terrible even if the delivery wasn't hampered by the uncertainty creeping into Chara's soul. Was that the voice's feelings? Or just how Chara was shaking?

Chara wasn't the only one who was lost.

Undyne's next words, slow and unsure, broke the silence that Astigmatism's declaration caused. "What did you do? What do you mean a fourth stinking soul?"

Astigmatism didn't smile. He only pointed at Undyne with the hand not clutching his holstered sword. "Did you not wonder why the evacuations in the city were so swift and thorough? It's not like that oh-so competent Dr. Alphys helped with the evacuation. Probably above her new pay grade."

You know what? Chara didn't even have to know what Undyne's relationship with Alphys was. Undyne was already frothing at the mouth, how else would that comment would go down but violently?

"Say another thing about her and I'll shove you into a blender!"

A spear materialized in Undyne's hand in an instant, with the blue light breaking up the green and black background of the magical influence. Why the colors green and black Chara didn't know…

"You seem tense Undyne. Might want to cool down before your anger gets you into trouble." Astigmatism didn't grin, but Chara could feel the smugness radiating from the guy.

 **(Astigmatism is planning something. Your party's Defense goes down).**

Chara still ignored the voice's incredibly unhelpful comments, even if they did take note of the way Undyne's guard more or less dropped out of anger. Maybe the voice was onto something, but Astigmatism started monologuing which gave Chara time to start planning a way out of this.

"While wandering Hotland, the Knight found someone wondering where they shouldn't. Apparently they were cooking up trouble from what I hear, but the Knight had this well in hand." Astigmatism laughed at that, an inside joke that did nothing to inform or endear the man to the two recipients.

Undyne's eye noticeably twitched. "What part of that has to do with Asgore giving me a job to do?"

Undyne probably still didn't get what Astigmatism was going towards, but Chara bared their teeth in both disgust and relief that an entire evacuation wasn't solely their own stupid fault.

"I'm not the only human wandering around. That's great. Can we go now?"

Undyne whipped her head to Chara, taking her eyes off Astigmatism. "What do you mean?" But she was clearly putting the pieces together and since Chara still felt rather grateful towards the fish, they didn't make the joke of her not being the sharpest tool in the fishmonger's kit.

"Oh Asgore no…" Wait, she finally figured it out the math of four souls minus one.

Astigmatism didn't move or take the advantage at all, even when Undyne was distracted and off guard. Chara's unbandaged hand wrapped around their knife but kept the blade out of Astigmatism's view. He was stalling with monologues and speeches, and Chara couldn't figure out why. Time was on their side after all. Sans was supposed to teleport in ten minutes ago, but Astigmatism wouldn't know that back up was coming.

Huh. Backup was a funny word…

 **(You get the feeling you've walked into a trap)**

The voice was worried now, and part of that worry shifted to Chara's own insecurity. The nugget of thought in their head began to grow and grow into a full blown mouse caught inside a deathtrap.

Undyne and Chara were stuck in a cramped alleyway. There weren't many ways for other guards to get into the alleyway to help, but by consequence, there wasn't all too many ways for Chara to get out. If someone blocked the exits, they'd be trapped inside. Sure Sans could get them out, but he was late already, and Chara couldn't trust him seeing as they were introduced maybe a whole hour ago.

 **(Ask about the Knight. I've never heard of them before).**

"What about this Knight? Did he capture the other human?" Chara reluctantly asked, more to stall for time than any actual interest.

Bleh. Other human. The word sounded foul, like tar on their tongue, but Astigmatism didn't have to know Chara hated humanity. All he needed was to assume a camaraderie like the rest of the sheep.

Undyne cast an awkward glance after their comment, but their foe didn't pick up on it.

Astigmatism, laughed, probably all too happy to keep going with his monologue and sealing their fate further.

"Sorry human. If you expected your friend to help you out, they're already taken care of. Their soul is being delivered to Asgore as we speak."

 **(Oh no)...**

Asgore probably wouldn't take to that too well. Judging from the way Undyne flinched back, she knew that too because Undyne immediately began shouting curses at the smug monster watching their reactions.

Now Chara didn't care about humans, but they did care about how Astigmatism might see their next move. Thanks to Chara's stellar acting ability, they knew exactly how to sink to the ground and grab their knees in a believable and unexaggerated show of despair. Undyne's confused look was just because she couldn't understand how great an actor Chara was. Astigmatism seemed to be buying it!

Or he was too busy gloating.

 **(Did you make a plan? You could try monologuing back at him and stall for Sans).**

No. Chara's plan was far more devious.

Chara fell to the ground in what looked like shock, but in all honestly they didn't care about one human or fifty humans being killed. But to the uneducated eye, it looked like Chara just sunk into grief. Neither monster noticed the bandaged hand that gasped some of the gravel and grit from the road. The two were too busy with confronting one another and being bamboozled by Chara's great deceptive skill.

 **(Please don't Chara. That's a terrible plan, and I flirt with people who try to kill me).**

Not listening! Not listening! They were too busy gathering up rocks for their newest master caper.

 **(You know Simon says? Let's play Frisk says! Good, now think of a better plan)!**

So the voice's name was Frisk was it? Good to know, but Frisk didn't say Simon says. The fact that their conscience decided to name themselves was something to worry about on another day. Right now, Chara didn't care because they were busy lulling Astigmatism into a false sense of security with their previously mentioned amazing acting ability. Too bad all their talent was being wasted since their foe was far more concerned with how much Undyne wanted to skewer him.

"You treacherous dog! Why haven't you checked your phone! Asgore filled you in! He should have told you everything" Her spear was wavering back and forth, like she couldn't quite decide where to stab Astigmatism.

"A few days ago, and I would have thought you to be thrilled at a third soul."

Undyne snarled. "Why don't you wait one stinking minute, so I can explain why!"

Only, Astigmatism wasn't listening. He was still stalling for time and Chara could swear that there was movement behind him. Was that his backup? The glint of knives and lost hope?

 **(Or Sans. Please be Sans).**

"Asgore has not been informed, but he should be pleased he will not have to face this human. All thanks to the Knight. And now, I'll get another one in the same day."

Chara was being ignored. Funny, usually that wasn't a problem underground. One would think that bloodthirsty humans would be the top of the priority list, but to be fair, Chara could admit Undyne was more than a little bit terrifying at the moment.

"That better be you in the background Sans!"

Undyne was practically frothing at the mouth, but she finally picked up on that movement behind Astigmatism. Wait, no there was someone behind them too! Still, the intensity of her shout coupled with her spear pointing out the figure in the background drew Astigmatism's gaze for a quick second.

A second was all Chara needed.

"Run you stupid fish!"

Chara hurled their handful of rocks and gravel straight at Astigmatism. His arm was just too slow to cover his great singular eye which meant that a whole handful of Chara's special attack hit him where it hurt.

"My eye!"

Chara immediately bolted in the opposite direction, barging past whoever was in the shadows on their end. The nameless monster fell to the floor. Chara had been right to be worried about being surrounded as on the opposite side of the alleyway, another monster in black guard armor rushed to help Astigmatism who was crying out in pain.

Chara ran as fast as their legs could carry them away. Meanwhile, Undyne kept the blistering pace that Chara was setting thanks to her longer legs and no doubt helped by the fact that Undyne was pure rage at this point. Chara could tell because that vein by Undyne's eye was twitching without halt.

"You couldn't wait ten seconds you punk! I was trying to use diplomacy!"

"Didn't you point a spear at Astigmatism?" Chara quite reasonably pointed out, and while there was no time to stop in place and laugh, the look on Undyne's face was pretty hilarious.

"I point a spear at everyone!" Undyne's case didn't exactly help itself with that statement, but at the very least Undyne was going along with Chara's flawless escape plan. "Quick question genius. How is Sans going to pick us up now?"

"He wasn't showing in the first place!"

That did make Undyne go quiet for a quick second which was good because Chara actually didn't think this far ahead. Undyne didn't need to know that. She was too busy furrowing her brow in thought. After a few moments of hard running and obviously harder to handle thoughts, she spoke up.

"Look. The king's path is two streets away. We can get Home and tear into Sans later."

Chara was only half-listening. "Two streets down. Got it."

"Stick close kid!" Undyne looked behind her back for pursuit, not breaking stride. "Right now. I've got a bad feeling about all of this. The captain wasn't acting normal. And there's no way a third soul just fell down randomly." Undyne sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Chara...

So yeah. Apparently some human was dead. Clearly something to be mourned…

Alrighty, mourning period was over. Chara burst out of the alleyway and opened up into the cold lamplight of one of the streets which was good news and bad news. The good news was that Chara recognized some of the buildings even if it had been a couple years.

The chocolate shop still had the same massive chocolate cake display they tried to eat but found out was cardboard. The bookstore was still being being renovated which raised some questions Chara didn't have time to answer about decades of progress. The game store still displayed board games that Asriel would have gone crazy over. Chara passed through these streets dozens of times in the past, trailing behind Asriel as he nervously explained the function of different stores or talking about his favorite places to buy action figures, sorry collector's statues. So yeah, overall good news.

The bad news was that the street was completely crowded with monsters. Big monsters, little monsters, red monsters, and a fire-breathing monster. Dozens of monsters were standing outside a big metal building, chatting, gossiping, crowding one another as more came pouring out onto the open streets like some kind of farmer's market of monstrosity.

 **(The sight of the evacuation being called off fills you with Determination)**

Only, Chara's stomach sank. There were three guards that looked to be in charge of directing the crowd. Two of the guards were wearing black armor that encased their features entirely, save for the helmets that denoted their species and left room to other guard, a dog monster, wore a vest but had a wicked looking scimitar at his side. He looked up to see Chara and immediately drew his weapon.

 **(Wait, I stand corrected. You're feeling exasperation. Narration isn't as easy as it looks you know).**

Chara felt a hand on their shoulder, but any retort they had cut short when Undyne stepped in between them and the three approaching guards. At the same time, Astigmatism and another guard came barreling out of the alleyway, forcing Undyne to widen her stance to cover Chara from both angles.

"Be very still. Don't draw their attention kid"

Undyne started whispering something to them, but for all their life, Chara couldn't hear her. Chara's bandaged hand hurt and the hand clutching their knife was shaking. They weren't worried though. They were just shaking in place and couldn't tell the voices from their head apart and Asriel was sick...

 **(Stay with me, Chara)** But even the voice, Frisk, was faint...

"Royal Guards. 3 and 4, Undyne is a traitor. Take her in. Doggo help me apprehend the human." Astigmatism's eye was an ugly red, irritated by the effect of Chara's special attack. His voice sounded as gravely as the dirt he'd soon be.

No. Chara didn't want to hurt him. Chara didn't want to hurt anyone. The guards, rather reluctantly, began circling around Undyne who was protesting to deaf ears. And Chara couldn't find a way out of the street. Their freedom was one street away, but crowds of monsters on either end blocked off any routes. Go go any further would risked them getting in the way, or worse Chara hurting them by accident.

It was the guards who were slowly circling around that Chara didn't want to hurt. The onlooking crowd that scrambled to stay away yet still cling close enough to the sidelines to see the bloodbath were blocking the way out. Chara didn't want to hurt them, but they were in the way, and Chara was so tired.

Their wandering eyes returned to Astigmatism, who noticed their glare and sneered. He lifted his voice again, not budging his eye from Chara. "Guards. There's also a little boss monster aiding the two. Treat him as hostile and dangerous."

Asriel? Hostile and dangerous? Did the guardsman even flinch at that order, or was Chara too shaky to hear past the ringing in their ears?

 **(His cruel words lower you defense).**

Chara couldn't hear them, too busy mourning Mercy. Astigmatism needed to die. Chara could jab their knife so far in that they could take a shower in the dust he'd make. All the world did was hurt them and all Chara could do was hurt the world back. Even if the demon didn't want to, it was all they could do to cling to life. Even if they wanted to just live and forget, even if the world was full of flowers and dreemurs, Chara couldn't die like this.

Chara would not die like this.

Funny that Undyne was thinking the exact same thing.

 _FWOOSH!_

A flash of blue light emerged from the cracked street in between the guards and their position. In one smooth movement, dozens of spears emerged from the ground to form what looked like a wall of pointy attitude and defiance. Only the nameless knight helping Astigmatism didn't flinch. Doggo jumped back as one spear nearly hit him, and R.G. 3 and 4 found their paths blocked.

"Hey kid,You're panicking. It will be fine. Look at me and breath alright?"

Chara was too far gone. Could you hyperventilate while still feeling like you didn't have a soul? Their head hurt and their body moved like it wasn't in their control...

"Kid?"

"Chara!"

Chara jolted forward when, a hand seared their shoulder with fire, but Undyne quickly let go when they saw Chara's look of discomfort. Her next words were soft, almost whispered in the grand scheme of things.

"I promise you that you're going to make it home Chara."

Undyne was sweating, perspiration forming on her blue face. On the other side of the spearwall, Chara could hear the clanging of metal and magic trying to break through, but Undyne's focus was solely on them.

"Breath in and out. There's a hole in the crowd over by that corner. If you run, you can be at home in a matter of minutes."

Chara tried to speak up, but words failed them. Undyne wasn't focusing on the guards trying to break though her magic, or the crowd that was gasping at the scene. All she did was smile. Their bared shark teeth reminded Chara more of the last defiant smile they'd see in shows or TV before a character would go off to their death.

Why was Undyne acting like this?

"Get home and bar the door. Wait for Asgore or Gerson to come get you. Sans too, though he might not bother with the door." Undyne chuckled at that, but the smile didn't reach her eyes, which were burning with equal parts fury and fondness.

Chara wanted to ask what she was talking about, but the way Undyne's hands were curled into a fist told the story far better.

"Can you tell Asgore I'm sorry? Warn him that something's messing with everyone's heads."

 **(Undyne is telling you to move on)** Frisk was stating the obvious, but their broken tone said otherwise.

"You feel like this is goodbye." Chara closed their eyes and snapped them open."But it isn't. You still have something to do."

Their knife was shaking again. And Chara really loved that knife. Asgore gave it to them, Chara even told Undyne about the knife. It was their knife. It was a weapon that you could use to make things. You could help things grow by cutting with the blade. You could take a thing that only destroys and let them plant flowers with you. Chara loved that knife almost as much as they loved the Dreemurs.

Which is why Chara shoved the knife into Undyne's hand.

"You are going to give that back."

Undyne was quiet for a moment, letting the knife sit in her hand for a second. "I promise."

 **(Through the chaos of battle, your friendship fills you with determination).**

Undyne wasn't a friend, Not really. They talked once without trying to kill each other. How could Chara call that a friendship? Undyne was a brash and arrogant fish. Undyne wasn't a friend, but as Chara ran towards the gap in the crowd and their freedom, they kinda wished she was.

* * *

Meanwhile, underneath a laboratory, there lay a refrigerator. Clearly, a strange sight. An oddity that was amplified by the area around the fridge being surrounded by large computer monitors and files of papers that Sans never bothered to pick up on his last cleaning job. Look, even as circumstances beyond comprehension bit at the thumb of fate, Sans was busy making a mess of his own in the kitchenette in the basement.

Don't get him wrong. Sans knew perfectly well when to get serious, and the situation with the prince looked bad enough that he was willing to voluntarily hurry up and give a helping hand. He could stay around for the few minutes and help Alphys out with the prince. Then, he could go swing back and get the human kid out from the bloodthirsty monsters. It was a simple plan, but Sans was a simple guy.

Just one problem.

Sans felt exhausted. Not just tired in the need to take a nap kinda way but the kind of exhaustion that meant walking hurt. Sans needed to take a nap. Like really bad. Shortcuts weren't easy, and he didn't exactly get much sleep before this whole apocalypse happened. He could take five minutes to get some energy back, right?

Sans opened the refrigerator, grabbing some of the bottles of water and more importantly, snagging the last of the Grillby brand ketchup. He didn't bother with any pleasantries when he took a long, slow draught of the good stuff. He probably should go stock up on some more when he had the-

 **Beep. File Loaded.**

Sans didn't drop the bottles, but man was he close to making a big mess. For some reason, one of the old computers was still up and running. Worse, it seemed to be sparking electricity of all things! Green and black numbers began to scroll up and down the home page with various symbols written in all manner of unreliable fonts. Like comic sans. For some reason, he never really liked that font…

Yeah right. Sans' inner comedy was being wasted in the basement. Sans set down the water bottles next to the monitor. He could take a whole extra minute to make sure the computer wouldn't start a fire. Alphys would be fine.

"What were you monitoring here old man?" Sans joked out loud, touching the literal computer monitor which was still firing the occasional spark in the air. The electricity stung, but other than that, Sans' hand only felt warm. The green and black text began to coalesce, forming big white letters that said-

 **Don't Forget.**

"Don't forget what?" Sans drew back his hand to scratch his chin. Pretty weird thing for the time-space monitor to start talking about. The thing didn't work at all back when Sans-

"You're looking ill Sans."Sans didn't blink when a voice called out from behind him. It was a deep, slightly nasally tone that he could have sworn he heard somewhere before. When he turned around, he remembered where he heard the voice. Everyday at training!

It was captain what's his face. The lion. Lionbrow, that was it! He was looking like he just walked in from Hotland, with his fur all sweating. He looked pretty uncomfortable, but heat did that to everyone with skin, or so Sans was told.

"When did you come in boss?"

Now maybe Sans felt so slow because he was tired. His mind was so sleepy, he could practically hear the lullaby sending him to sweet oblivion. He stayed awake though, like the champ he was!

Yeah right, Sans shook himself, nearly nodding off after his first sentence. Lionbrow thankfully just took his sleepiness in stride.

"Well, I arrived with Look-At-Me not a minute ago. Alphys may have kindly instructed me to go where I wasn't in the way." He smiled a bit too bashfully. Lionbrow phrased that pretty weird, but Sans was too exhausted to think about how Alphys reacted to a bunch of superiors walking in. Oh wait, she was royal scientist now. Guess that meant peers. Wait a minute...

"Weren't you guys meeting with Asgore? Undyne kinda filled me in." Sans swayed in pace. He was really tired all of a sudden...

"Well, the king stormed off to be on his own. I think he went on the King's path for a bit to cool down." Lionbrow stretched out his claws which caused Sans' eyes to follow the arc of his boss' lazy stretch. Maybe both of them needed a day off...

"Anyway, I convinced Look-At-Me to meet a new friend of mine. The knight. I'm sure you're well aware of him."

Sans just yawned. "Never heard of the guy."

Lionbrow grinned. "You don't know the knight? Funny, he told me so many things about you."

Huh, that lullaby was really relaxing. In fact, Sans found himself curling up into a small ball right then and there. It wasn't like he had anything important to do. Why not take a nap right now? He could even surprise Papyrus later by telling him all about the royal guard.

Yeah, a nap sounded really nice. Sans began to drift off into sleep where he stood. He could stand to sleep a little. Lionbrow was there. He could take care of whatever it was Sans was doing.

That lullaby lingered for a second longer, one last chorus ringing out to its captive audience.

Behind the sleeping Sans, the time-space monitor and its display of green and black numbers was frozen in place, scrambled in a jumble of meaningless letters and symbols. There was only one message worth reading.

 **Thank You... Your Wonderful Creation... Will now be discarded.**

And even that disappeared into a mess of static after Lionbrow closed the program, whistling a funeral dirge not so different than the one his new ally so helpfully provided. Lionbrow brushed the dirt of his clothes, grabbed a water bottle, and went on his merry way. But Sans didn't notice that. He just slumbered on as watching eyes made note of the situation and planned accordingly.


	15. In Which The Heroine Falls

"Stop resisting Undyne! You're outgunned!"

Undyne clutched the hilt of the knife. She could feel her energy being drained as her former comrades tore down her spear walls. She could hear the murmur of the crowd as Chara pushed through a section where two Temmies were too busy vibrating to get in the way. Now wasn't the time to be lost in thought, but Undyne couldn't help but turn Chara's knife in her hand.

That garden knife was from Asgore. That knife was a gift from Asgore that Chara cherished enough to carry it around everywhere, yet Chara gave it away all the same. Well, Undyne didn't need someone to spell it out. It was an unspoken contract that Undyne signed when she took that knife. She would have to make it back okay, and if that action didn't show that stark change in attitude on Chara's part, then Undyne didn't' know what else to say.

"You know kid. You're not that bad after all."

Chara pushed through the pair of Temmies and disappeared into one of the many alleyways where it was easy enough to disappear from sight. Not a second later, the wall of spears began to crack. Undyne felt sweat roll down her brow as she shifted attention to maintaining the spears which really weren't meant to be used as barriers. She was going to be exhausted, but Undyne just grit her teeth and redoubled her efforts.

She just needed to buy some time for the kid to get away and barricade themselves somewhere safe, but easier said than done. Her spear wall cracked almost in two after Doggo landed a nasty blow with his scimitar. With the way Undyne felt her brow sweating, she could tell that she had seconds at best before things got complicated.

Good thing Undyne had a plan to get out of this, and it was a rather brilliant one if she did say so herself.

"Hey losers! Why don't you stop running around, so we can talk like reasonable monsters!"

The moment she called out, she dropped her spear wall with a flick of her wrist. Undyne turned around, sliding Chara's knife into her off hand as she summoned another spear in her right. Undyne smirked with a confidently armed grin. She was ready to enact her brilliant plan.

"So did anyone see that new film with All Might? Talk about awesome!"

Like Undyne planned, her comment stopped the guards in their tracks. After all, why wouldn't they stop? Doggo, R.G. 3, and R.G. 4 were her comrades in arms. Undyne was a friend. Sure, maybe they weren't best friends by any means, but these were people Undyne worked with on a daily basis. She might be just a recruit while they were guard members, but that definition was in legal matters only. She kicked their butt in training all the time, and in turn, they tried to return the favor only to fail because Undyne was awesome. She could talk things out with her companions with the best case scenario being that they actually listened to her long enough to call Asgore on the phone and demand answers.

Undyne would be keeping that promise to Chara. Her hands curled around the knife, but violence was for once not Undyne's answer. Instead, she smiled to her comrades who were watching her with careful eyes.

"Hey Doggo. Did you get those glasses yet? Your eyesight will probably get worse if you keep going without."

Doggo raised his shoulders "I can see fine!"

"You're not looking in the right direction buddy"

It was true. Doggo was slightly off formation. What could have been a pincer move with the two other guards turned into an easily exploitable mess. If Undyne wasn't trying to stall for time, she could probably pick them apart when they were separated. Assuming the fact that Undyne was a real traitor in this scenario. She even said as much.

"Look guys. You're not even taking this seriously! I could kick your butts like twelve times over, so why don't we sit down and talk."

Look. Undyne might be brash, but her attitude worked. Her friends were slowing down, and Doggo didn't even bother raising his scimitar to swing it instead hooking it onto his hip. This was it! This was really it. Undyne just needed to get them to stop long enough to get a hold of the misunderstanding. Of course, that's why Astigmatism chose such a good time to be a stubborn old man.

"Soldiers. Retain the traitor, or I'll consider you working in conjunction with her."

"But boss…" Doggo complained, but Astigmatism was already pushing past him. A guard that Undyne didn't recognize stepped in to say something to the group of guards, but Undyne didn't have the time to pay attention to that mysterious Knight that Undyne had never met despite knowing the name of every guard in the Underground. Probably an important fact if she wasn't concerned with someone else.

Astigmatism approached Undyne with his weapon drawn. He said nothing but the remaining crowd watching the scenario kept the streets loud with their gossiping and babble. The murmur of the crowd behind Undyne hit a crescendo when he raised his sword to brandish it a Undyne…

And said nothing.

Yeah, even though she desperately wanted to do something as cool as pointing her spear at him in equal silence, it was pretty obvious that pointing a spear at him would just escalate things. Undyne took the much more diplomatic option.

"Hey eye-sore! Do you really think I'd back-stab Asgore? Since when would I turn my back on everything I've worked for?"

Undyne kept her hands wrapped tight around her weapons in case of the worst, but apparently the worst was all that she was getting today because Astigmatism shook his head.

"I don't know what to believe, but I have a duty above anything else. No matter the cost, I promise you that the human dies tonight."

"Just listen for a minute-"

But it was too late. Astigmatism's bloodshot eye disappeared beneath the slits of his mask. Before Undyne could say another word, his sword slashed forward with a wave of white energy that indiscriminately surged forward.

 **(Nothing is ever easy now is it?)**

Undyne couldn't help but smirk even as she raised her spear to parry the attack and everything became a little more complicated...

* * *

"Sans! Sans! Brother!"

Sans shifted his body away from the shouting. There was a loud trumpeting voice calling out to him in his sleep. Whoever the voice was, he sounded familiar. If Sans didn't feel like he was hit by a truck, he might have opened his eyes.

"Brother! Aren't you supposed to be at work! Not materializing in thin air!"

Sans just shifted in his sleep. He didn't have anything better to do. He quit his job because of sanitation issues and nothing else. Sans was free to do whatever he wanted. Or was he free? For some reason, the thought lingered in his mind. Did he have to do something important today with the scary guard lady?

Nah.

"Undyne's covering my shift, "Sans groaned and curled up into a little ball. Above him, he heard that same voice continue

"Hmmm. Undyne. She's the fish lady right? Maybe I should go check on her! If Sans won't help, I'm sure the Great Papyrus would more than suffice!"

Perhaps that was the start of something truly great. A friendship cooked up between a half sleeping skeleton and his brother for the future. Whatever it was, Sans was too tired to care.

"That's great Paps," Sans shoved his head back into his pillows and let sleep overtake him. Everything was right in the world. Sans was sleeping, Papyrus was being great, and a human hadn't fallen down for years. This was his dream world. Sans didn't need to count on anyone, and no one needed to count on him...

* * *

Halfway across the underground and a little ways off in spacetime, Undyne panted in exhaustion. For some reason, Undyne wanted to strangle Sans. Sure, her friendship won out in the end, but the urge to stab Sans didn't subside. At least Undyne could be forgiven for her misplaced anger and adrenaline seeing that she nearly lost her head to Astigmatism's sword a few seconds ago.

"Watch where you're swinging that thing!"

Undyne shoved Astigmatism back with her spear, but the space that she created lasted for only a second before Astigmatism cut forward with a grounded wave of magical energy.

Undyne jumped straight up, but the thing with magic was that it only needed to be a glancing hit to be a problem. Her foot caught the edge of the beam, and the result wasn't pretty. Undyne landed hard on an already injured leg, barely straining against her own weight, but she smiled at Astigmatism anyway.

"You know. Despite the fact I'm kicking your butt in record time, this could be over sooner if we just sit down and talk," Undyne boasted past her wounds.

Haha. Empty words. Seeing as Undyne was fighting against her coworkers, she wasn't going to actually try and fight back against Astigmatism's relentless onslaught. That left her in the rather awkward position of trying to parry everything that was thrown at her. The fight was made more difficult seeing that after the Knight guy talked to the more hesitant guards a few minutes ago, Undyne's friends started fighting her too. Like Doggo for instance, who was trying to creep up on Undyne from behind...

"Stay!" Doggo cried out, and Undyne immediately obliged by standing still.

A blue knife soared straight through Undyne's left eye, passing through her still form as the magic faded from sight on the other end of Undyne's body. Undyne felt her chest shudder after that blue attack did no damage.

"I'm sorry Undyne," Doggo barked out. He sounded actually regretful. Undyne might have forgiven him if he didn't throw an entire knife at her eye.

"Would you stop trying to blind me Doggo! One blind guard is enough thank you!"

"It was meant for your arm," Doggo apologized, but Undyne didn't have time to reflect on his poor aim because a massive axe nearly clipped her in two . Even if they weren't trying too hard to hit her, R.G. 3 and R.G. 4 both held massive weapons that would less leave a mark than cut her in two. Undyne was left dancing around her comrades in a vicious dance of steel and magic. Tiptoeing past feints and leaping over grounded magical waves left no room for margin or even paying attention to her surroundings in a productive way.

Wait. Where was that unnamed Knight from before? The one who persuaded the other guards to attack her was nowhere in sight, and a lingering suspicion told Undyne that he probably went after the kid. Undyne tried to look around, but Astigmatism choose to lunge forward at that exact moment with a thrust of his sword.

Undyne parried the sword to the side, immediately grounding herself to the fight happening right now. Even if the Knight went after the kid, Undyne was blocking the quickest path to find Chara. Nothing would make her move. She was the stalwart iron wall in the face of justice and no power under this mountain would…

That was a giant axe heading straight for her.

Undyne threw herself to the ground, barely avoiding the swipe of the axe as R.G. 3 brandished his weapon. His partner in battle was waiting on the other side to hit her with his own massive weapon. Now, not to say that Undyne wasn't completely out of her depth here…

Who was she kidding? This was bad.

"Hey buddy! Stop trying to take off my head!"

Undyne couldn't stay still as that axe came closer and closer to her each time. This wasn't helped by Astigmatism's attacks. The smaller warrior was creating more of the grounded beams that meant that Undyne needed to jump around while still avoiding that big axe on her opposite side. Something in this situation had to go.

The opportunity presented itself when Astigmatism fired another grounded blast regardless of friendly fire. R.G. 4, who tried taking advantage of Undyne's distraction to flank her, was caught right in the line of attack and flinched in pain.

"Four, are you alright?" R.G. 3 took his attention off of Undyne for a quick second, but it was all Undyne needed to lunge forward with her spear. R.G. 3's attention was kept solidly on his friend's injuries which Undyne would be checking too if now wasn't the best chance to get away.

"Sorry buddy!" Undyne aimed her spear at the axe handle. While her opponent was distracted, she twisted the spear against the axe hilt and _pulled_...

Unexpectedly, instead of R.G. 3 dropping the weapon, the swing of his arm caused the axe to go flying. The good news was that this caused R.G. 4 to duck his head to avoid the flying axe. The bad news was that the axe went soaring through empty air, pinwheeling with its momentum in the direction of a kid wearing stripes.

"Watch out kid!"

Undyne's warning came out just in time because the child threw herself to the ground and narrowly avoided the axe. Undyne let out a sigh of relief.

The young monster looked kinda like a purple dinosaur. She was still in stripes, but the kid looked about old enough to start being a teenager more than anything. Not really a noteworthy thing if the girl wasn't standing in the middle of the fight. Worse was the fact that she didn't seem terrified. If anything, her eyes were wide and her purple body was practically shaking with excitement as she looked at the axe which landed two whole feet away from her.

 **(That kid reminds me of us. Cool, but she's in the way)**

Oh fish sticks. Undyne's inner conscience was right. What was that kid doing here?

"Watch from the windows, not the battlefield!" Undyne cried out to the little brat that decided to watch a fight from front row seats.

The kid shot her an odd glance, but at the very least, she took notice of where she was standing and shrugged to Undyne. In Undyne's opinion, it was probably a better move than Undyne could say she'd do back when Undyne was the kid's age. Undyne's situational awareness and self preservation instance, like most children's instincts, got so much better when she was older.

Immediately following that thought, Undyne was clobbered over the head by a punch. Undyne's lack of attention cost her any safety net that disarming R.G. 3 brought to the table.

Undyne rolled with the punches, but her mind thoroughly focused back on the fight in time to watch Astigmatism next move. He attacked once more, regardless of his allies who were in the way. Undyne jumped backwards to avoid the blast.

Undyne couldn't sit and think in an environment like this. Her mind was mechanical. Turn the big Royal Guards green to give some Undyne some room dance away. Fend off Doggo by shoving him over with pure strength. Most importantly of all, Undyne needed to watch Astigmatism as he was firing magic against everyone remotely close to Undyne including his fellow allies and whoever else was in the area.

Wait a minute. There was a crowd behind her wasn't there? Shouldn't they be gone by now?

Undyne could hear them shouting...

Doggo blocked her view by standing in front of her. Undyne turned around, locking her spear and Chara's knife against Doggo's scimitar so he couldn't take advantage of her distraction. Building suspicion grew into outright horror when she looked onto where the crowd had been watching their brief standoff. Undyne's heart started racing as she watched the crowd behind her scatter away from the fight, but it wasn't a pretty or organized sight. When twenty rabbits went one way and a gaggle of Temmies went in all the other directions simultaneously, things become complicated.

Why weren't they escaping?

Undyne's eyes darted back and forth as she found the reason why. Any visible exits were being blocked of. Sure, Undyne was defending one path to let Chara get away, but other easy exits were being blocked off by Astigmatism's area attacks. In fact, Undyne wheezed out a warning as Astigmatism winded up another large blast of energy aimed directly at her and Doggo who was still trying to wrench his scimitar out of Undyne's lock.

"Watch out!"

Undyne shoved Doggo back, saving him from the cut that surged forward regardless of friendly fire or civilians. It was too late for Undyne though, as she took the cut head on.

Undyne gasped, retching forward as the attack hit her and continued onwards to the crowd behind her, throwing monsters to the ground as they cried out in pain. The blast finally faded after leaving a deep scourge mark against the wall. Monster were very resilient against magic, but even Undyne's lengthy strength training did next to nothing against a real hostile attack.

And civilians weren't as tough as royal guards...

"Undyne, I didn't see. What happened?" Doggo couldn't keep the worry out of his voice, even as he gripped his scimitar and staggered to his feet. Doggo couldn't see well, but like Undyne, he could probably hear the cries of pain from the crowd as they hit the ground.

"There's a crowd back there Doggo! Why haven't they been evacuated?"

Undyne caught Doggo's blinking eyes as the poor guy tried to see the moving crowd, but even in the clatter and clang of battle, Undyne couldn't help but focus on the people who were limping away with injuries.

Captain Astigmatism cut once more with his long range sword beam, and Undyne's attention remained on the monsters who were caught in the way of the attack. People were getting hurt, and it was all Undyne's fault for…

Not surrendering? Letting Chara get chased and killed? What the hell was Undyne supposed to do in this situation when no one would listen? What would a real hero do in this situation?

"Are they hurt Undyne?" Doggo asked. His scimitar fell to the side and his tone was that of one to a comrade. "What should we do?"

What would a hero do? Undyne's hand started to shake as she thought about the answer.

"I give up! Stop it!" Undyne's teeth were clenched, but she extinguished her spears. She almost dropped Chara's knife before stowing it to her belt at the last moment. "Doggo, there's an injured pair over there why don't you help them?"

Damage control. Ooh sweet Asgore, things went wrong. Undyne might have been doing her best to keep things clean, but one guard in particular escalated things far more than they should have gotten. Astigmatism was throwing out far too many area attacks for a crowded city, It was like he didn't care. For what? Did he need to go after the human that badly?

"Hey lady, watch out!"A young voice called out to Undyne. The girl from before, the kid standing by the giant axe, pointed over to Astigmatism whose sword was glowing. Undyne was lost for a moment before noticing that he was staring directly at her, cutting forward with a burst of energy across the street.

Undyne threw herself out of the way, sliding closer to where the kid with the axe was standing. Undyne's hands started to shake, but she managed to nod thanks to the girl.

"Thanks kid."

"It's Susie. You got that lady? And I don't like owing people anything."

Undyne blinked. What did she owe her? Wait, she warned the kid about that flying axe from earlier. Susie probably wanted to return the favor.

Cool. If Undyne wasn't panting in exhaustion and trying to take in all the injuries around her, she'd probably thank the kid. As it was, Undyne turned to face Susie whose expression morphed into one of terror as she looked over over Undyne's shoulders.

Undyne turned her attention to behind her when she heard a clatter of steel. Astigmatism's helmet was raised for visibility, but he pointed his sword towards where Undyne was blade was still shining ever so slightly...

"You might want to back up kid." Undyne glanced back to Susie, who made a face at being called a kid. She didn't move from that spot next to the giant axe, but at least Undyne could say that she tried. Because the fight was over now. Astigmatism should be calmer right? He should start helping the injured any minute now.

No, Undyne had a bad feeling about this...

"Captain! Undyne surrendered!" Doggo cried out, but Astigmatism didn't seem keen on listening His one eye was glowing red and blinking rapidly beneath his visor. Astigmatism snarled as he strode forward.

"Undyne No Name. I pronounce you as a traitor to the state. By the power vested in me by the king, you will be held under a military tribunal."

The other guards were silent, but their eyes started flickering to the state of the street after the battle. At this point, magical food was being handed out to those injured in the fighting to help them get back to a healthy state. Most of the civilians were standing up npw. The guards who had been fighting looked rough, but since Undyne hadn't been fighting back, those injuries didn't make any sense.

Unless they weren't from Undyne...

Undyne felt Chara's knife press against her side, but she did nothing hostile as Astigmatism approached. She did nothing as he strode up to her, pulled back his arm, and struck her in the stomach.

Undyne retched, glad she hadn't eaten anything that wasn't magical in origin. She sunk to her knees with the breath knocked out of her, but Undyne didn't make a sound. What she did was smile with shark's teeth because at this point Chara was long gone. Even if things went sideways, Undyne did her job.

So why did it feel so wrong?

Astigmatism must have realized that fact that the human was long gone because his fist was shaking in place as he muttered, "I'd strike you down here, but I think it would be better to let your career fall to pieces around you."

Undyne just snorted to herself. Her career was over when she let two kids sneak away. Undyne could face Asgore and failure later. She could apologize to everyone when they actually allowed her get more than a hasty sentence out.

 **(Watch out).**

Idly, Undyne noticed that Astigmatism's eye was still bloodshot and practically shining. He didn't seem to be acting soundly or even sanely, but no more monsters were being caught in the crossfire. The whole situation sucked, but at the very least, no more civilians were being hurt.

 _Slap!_

Undyne's wheezed as Astigmatism backhanded her. All at once, Undyne heard shouting from Doggo and the other guard, but all Undyne could hear is the sound of bells and the beating of her heart playing against a backdrop of a sour melody. Funny, there were no bells or music to listen to, but Undyne couldn't help but drift off to that lullaby…

Hell no!

Abruptly, the melody cut off as Undyne's eyes snapped open. Why would she start sleeping now? Why was she acting like Astigmatism was doing something good with his little stunts? Astigmatism almost severely injured his comrades and innocent monsters, and Undyne was letting it slide because she heard some music! Granted the music was probably sleep deprivation and stress, but you know what? Screw it!

Undyne rose to her feet and opened her mouth to verbally tear the captain to shreds, but for once, it wasn't Undyne to piss someone else off.

"Hey jerk! Are you done breaking the street yet?" Susie was smudged up by a bit of dirt, but she still stood next to the axe that Undyne disarmed. In fact, Undyne actually saw Susie's hand curl around the pommel once like it was a really cool toy in a toy store. Her fascination with the weapon didn't stop her from glaring at Astigmatism.

"Get back kid. This is a dangerous fugitive."

"Hey. that fish wasn't the one attacking the crowd like some reckless jerk now was she?" Susie's question felt more pointed than Undyne's spears.

"Hate to bark in. Hey boss. There's still injured." Doggo's voice was a bit cautious. His eyes were darting back and forth between Undyne and Astigmatism. The other guards were spread out in a circle around the group and were accompanied by the furious gazes of the people who weren't injured.

"I'm sorry-" Only Undyne cut herself off because the building crowd weren't staring at her.

Astigmatism rose his voice, seemingly oblivious to the circle forming around them. "The injured can tend to themselves. The human is the priority."

"H-Hey! Jerk! Didn't you cause most those injuries?" Susie probably just noticed the group of monsters forming around them because she started glancing around. Her previously steady accusations were now just a little bit nervous. Stage fright maybe? As nervous as the girl was, her question seemed to push Astigmatism further down a boiling point

"You helped the traitor out earlier, didn't you?" Astigmatism turned his attention back to Susie who shrugged. Her hand was still grabbing that axe, but she looked more likely to bail because the crowd staring at her. Well, Undyne could probably throw the kid a bone by distracting everyone.

"Hey, eyeball guy, where did you get treason from that interaction? The kid shouted watch out. Anyone would have said it with the way you were throwing around those attacks!" Undyne couldn't keep the disgust out of her sentence.

Was Astigmatism always this crass? So blind-sighted? It seemed odd that a respected captain of the guard would attack regardless of the other in the way or bully the ones in his command.

Seeing as Astigmatism didn't bother defending himself, Undyne continued with her ranting

"If anything, you did more damage to these people than the human!" Undyne shouted out. Some of the monsters in the crowd were nodding after Undyne's words. With their attention away from Susie, the girl finally decided to slip out of the center of attention.

Good for her. Undyne could handle being everyone's focus, but as Susie started to turn away, things started to fall apart...

"Kid, why do I know you?" It was the only thing that Astigmatism had said regarding his own defense, and the question wasn't even addressed to his accusers. Wasn't she supposed to be the big bad criminal? The rest of the crowd were shouting things at Astigmatism too, but he paid mind only to the kid.

Susie froze in place and turned around in confusion when Astigmatism spoke. "I just met you today. I would have remembered an unemployed loser. "

Undyne snorted even though the insult didn't make sense. Susie still looked ready to bolt, but Astigmatism actually took a step forward to point at the kid.

Astigmatism growled. "I was warned about you kid. You're like Undyne. You're on the list."

The List? What list was he talking about? Sounded vague and was breathing in and out rather obnoxiously. Additionally, his eye was still glowing bright red in a way that chilled Undyne to the heart. The bad feeling in her gut just got worse.

Susie just shrugged her shoulders and turned away, but Undyne's stomach dropped as Astigmatism's features turned hard, and he lunged forward. No one sane would have seen it coming. Undyne saw his sword leave his sheathe with a shining blade.

"That one's a traitor too! Stop her!"

Astigmatism sword slashed forward. The kid's eyes fearfully widened as she threw up her arms in self defense…

But Undyne was already in front of the kid and tackled her to the ground. Astigmatism's sword hit empty air thanks to Undyne's desperate action, and he went stumbling...

"You alright kid?"

"I'm… Of course I'm fine." Susie's head went darting back and forth as the kid took deep breaths. When Undyne rose to her feet, she helped pull the kid up before turning to the soon to be smear on the wall.

"What the HELL are you doing Astigmatism?" Undyne still didn't have any weapons out because she was far too tired to be able to manage even a simple spear. Despite her exhaustion,she couldn't keep the pure outrage out of her voice.

"You and the brat are under arrest!" Astigmatism waved his sword at Doggo and the rest of the guards. For a moment, Undyne feared the worst as Doggo slowly drew his scimitar, but that feeling faded to silence when he and the others wordlessly turned their weapons to Astigmatism.

Undyne stumbled forward as a wave of exhaustion hit her, but before she could even think of resting, the kid next to her began to shake. Undyne was still standing next to Susie, but the poor kid looked frightened beyond belief. Not to mention she looked confused, but Undyne was confused too. Undyne couldn't answer any questions, but at the very least, she could do her best to help the kid.

Undyne knelt down to look Susie in the eyes. "Hey buddy. You can calm down now because it's over.."

"B-back off! I'm fine!" She sounded confident, but Susie was still shaking and glancing over to the other guards who were surrounding Astigmatism. They were talking too softly to her, but the fact that weapons were still being brandished probably didn't help.

What could calm down the kid? Undyne tried to think, but she could only think of what she would want to hear in this situation, so she gave it a try.

"You really helped me out back there kid. Ever think of joining the guard?"

Undyne stretched out a hand that Susie decisively ignored. "Didn't the guard just try and stab me? Yeah right I'm joining those jerks!"

Undyne clapped Susie on the shoulders. "Come on! You get a cool axe or other weapon. Like this knife here!"

Alright, admittedly Chara's knife wasn't a standard issue weapon, but Susie didn't need to know that. Undyne was trying to calm the poor kid down. Something tactile like a knife would probably help the kid hold onto something. Seeing as Susie was still glancing towards the axe embedded into the street, Undyne would hazard a guess and say that a knife would be just as cool to the kid. She drew the blade while light sparkled across the handle.

 **(Behind you rookie!)**

It happened in a moment. One minute Undyne was holding Chara's knife and trying to show it Susie. When her subconscious cried out in her head, glance down to her own reflection.

In the reflection of Chara's knife, Undyne saw Astigmatism breakaway from the group of guards that were trying to get in his way. He still had a sword in his hands, and he was charging straight at the kid. His eye was bright red in a way that no bout of pinkie or irritating bits of gravel could cause. The glowing red eye fostered a sense of foreboding unlike anything Undyne felt before, but there was no time to hesitate. Undyne pushed Susie out of the way and brought her knife out. As Astigmatism lunged forward with his sword, Susie went flying across the ground, but at least she was safe from the attack.

If only she was the target, Undyne realized too late...

"Goodbye heroine…"

It wasn't Astigmatism's voice that whispered those words, but it didn't matter because his sword raked across Undyne's face in a horizontal cut. Undyne gasped for air as the burning sensation on her face spread to the rest of her body.

Everything hurt until everything didn't. In fact, the pain just turned to drowsiness. Like a song that could let her sleep forever. In fact, Undyne could hear the weird voice whispering into her ear grow more insistent.

"You're too tired for magic, aren't you? Just drift off to sleep like the rest..."

Sleep was sounding nice. Why couldn't Undyne just let go again? She could just drift off into nothing. There was nothing tying her down now…

No duties to be had. Undyne did her job. She babysat and failed. She got the kids back, and apologized to the kid. What was tying Undyne down to this world? It wasn't like Asgore would trust her enough to be part of the royal guard after this mishap. Undyne helped out Asgore, and at the very least, she could sleep knowing that she kept her promise.

Right?

 **("You are going to give that back." You made a promise. Are you determined enough to keep it?)**

That's right. Undyne's hands curled around the knife that was still in her hand. She needed to give back the knife that Chara gave her. She needed to apologize to those kids and to Sans and to Asgore for messing up. She couldn't sleep now.

And like that, Undyne woke up.

Captain Astigmatism Senior was still whispering faint words that grew fainter after each excruciating second. He looked confident. He looked proud. He looked like an absolute madman, and most importantly, he looked like his guard was dropped because Undyne should rightly be dead.

Well, even if her face and eyes burned like an iron rod, Undyne knew something he didn't. He was standing right next to Undyne after all, and in her hand, she could feel the knife that held her whispered promises and dreams.

It wasn't much, but with her fading strength, all she could manage was driving Chara's knife directly into the chest of the monster that caused this mess.

"Hurk…" Astigmatism's face blurred. Was that him turning to dust, or was Undyne quickly fading into blissful sleep?

In the background, Undyne could hear shouting and panicked cries for help, but everything started to grow faint. . Her eyes went rather blurry because the blinding pain from Astigmatism's attacks, but the last sight Undyne could make out was the image Susie standing in front of her with an outstretched hand.

"Get up!"

No. Wait. It couldn't be Susie, because Susie was a few feet away staring in horror. What kid did Undyne know that wore a purple and blue sweater? Whoever it was, Undyne couldn't help but smile as she fell forward.

Everything went black as her eyes burned. The cutting sensation lasted just long enough for the mysterious and familiar child to guide her decent to sleep, then everything became dark yet darker…

* * *

Meanwhile, Chara's heart was beating relentlessly against their chest like the sound of their footsteps echoing across the streets. Unlike a few hours before, these streets weren't empty. No one was on the roads themselves, and not a single monster followed from the alleyways that Chara cut through to get away from the fighting, but wary eyes watched from concealed positions all the same. Up in the windows of different buildings, pedestrians were straining their eyes against the dark and following Chara's path. Most watchers probably didn't even recognize Chara as a human, but with all the evacuating and fighting that had been going on, many were taking the safe option of watching from afar.

Chara didn't care as within their mind, they had bigger problems to worry about. Tears rolled down Chara's cheeks as in their head, the voice of Frisk repeated their mantra.

 **(I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I did this. I'm sorry).**

Chara didn't know what to say to that, but it didn't matter. They were almost home. Chara recognized most of these buildings now. The details, the detailing, all these things were practically alien after so many years, but Chara could recognize the shape of the buildings and even the store names. It was just a few more minutes until Chara could be safe in the only home that they ever needed.

It even smelled like home. Past the stench of the city and the salt of tears they weren't crying, Chara could smell flowers. It was an earthy smell. Weird because before, it was all metal and stone and the icky smell of mold that no amount of washing or plugging the nose could get rid of. Now the street smelled like tea. The kind of herbal smell that Asgore would have growing in his house.

Chara was close to home and completely alone. Worse, their knife was gone. Maybe it was a stupid idea to give away their knife, but Chara didn't regret it. Undyne was back there. Fighting off those other guards or trying to reason with them. It would be hilarious in any other context. In fact, Chara even started to laugh to themselves in a fast, hysterical way.

"Stupid Undyne. That was so stupid of her! Hahahaha!"

Undyne looked exhausted back there and really Chara could feel the same. Turns out that the fish wasn't so bad after all, but all that didn't matter because Undyne looked like she was about to get executed for treason. Did monsters execute for treason? Before today, Chara would have said no. Now? Chara was tired. Too tired to think straight or care.

Why didn't Chara stay and help Undyne? Or if they didn't care about Undyne, why did their heart hurt? Why were drops of water rolling down their cheek?

 **(Undyne will be fine.)**

All the time that Chara ran, the crying cry baby in their head desperately tried to reassure themselves. At this point, Chara knew it wasn't their subconscious but to be fair, Chara never really thought that Frisk was their subconscious in the first place.

"You're such a crybaby." Chara wiped away the tears from their eyes. "Just like Asriel."

One last alleyway was in their way, and Chara burst through it as fast as their legs could carry them. Last time they were around this area, it was the time Asriel scraped his knee and now he was hurt and…

Chara, distracted by their own thoughts, reached the end of the alleyway and tripped.

After running as fast as their legs could handle, suddenly tripping at top speed felt like a rock being dropped on their head from a merciless god. Worse was that the weight was theirs to bear alone. Asriel was gone, and Chara knew next to nothing about Doctor Alphys other than the fact that she flirted with Undyne rather poorly. Stupid Sans wasn't coming back to do his stupid job.

The voice in their head was crying and Chara would be lying if they didn't mention the tears crawling down their own face.

 **(Just a few more feet! Stay Determined)**

It was solid advice, but the voice sounded so panicky that it triggered Chara's own insecurities. Asriel was in such bad shape when last Chara saw him, and now, Undyne was added to the list. Their leg hurt and Chara couldn't escape from the voice in their head.

 **(Come on Chara! You cannot give up just yet… Stay determined!)**

Their voice sounded like what Asgore would whisper before tucking Chara in at night. Whenever they'd be stressed, Asgore or Toriel would sit by their bed and tell them stories or whisper promises next to Chara's ears. Chara would clutch their pillow and drift off into blissful slumber thanks to those words, and right now, the voice sounded kinda like Asgore.

In fact, Frisk sounded exactly like how Asgore would say the words. Their voice wasn't as much of a deep baritone, but the words had the same inflections Asgore would use whenever he was talking. It was that fact that broke Chara.

"Who are you?"

Chara couldn't open their eyes. Their head pounded like a thousand knives being twisted in by the voice, and despite all their hate that blistered in their stomach and the drive to go home and never move from the covers of a blanket, Chara couldn't move.

 **(What do you mean Chara)?**

The voice was sniffling away the tears that formed on Chara's sealed eyes.

Was the voice crying, or was it just Chara?

Meanwhile, with their eyes shut, their sense of smell came to the front of their attention. It smelled like someone weeding in the rain. It smelled like the watery, black soil that gave the chance for new flowers and new growth. Chara would shovel dirt back and forth for the best spots to replant damaged flowers in this kind of weather.

"You better explain yourself. Whoever you are Frisk."

 **(You don't remember me?)**

It was quiet for a second. Chara's eye were still welded shut, and for a moment, their heart skipped a beat.

"Are you the reason I'm back? Who are you, really?"

Chara's tears were drying up, but that didn't bring any sense of catharsis. Chara sniffed and kept their eyes clenched shut. They should be moving to safety, but right now, this was all that Chara could handle. After what felt like an eternity of silence, the voice finally confessed.

 **(My name is Frisk. I am- I mean I was your friend a long time ago).**

Now, Chara thought that there were still some important questions that needed to be answered. For example, who, what, when, where, and why was Chara alive? Those questions could wait a little though. Chara's eyes were already shut, and to open them seemed a monumental task. Chara wanted to sleep.

 **(And a friend won't let you stay in the ground.)**

Chara needed to move but didn't want to try and lift their aching limbs. The ground was welcoming. Chara could hear a lullaby in their ears that was singing them to sleep...

 **(You're not alone in the dark. Now please get up).**

Chara's eyes opened. The lullaby of sleep continued, but with their eyes open, Chara could shake their limbs up and push themselves to their feet. Chara looked ahead and blinked...

A yellow flower greeted them and for a moment, Chara had the strangest feeling that it was about to open its eyes and say howdy. The thought was so real, that they could see the eyes wink at them and the mouth curling into a smile to say-

"Howdy there."

Chara couldn't move. They could only stare at the yellow, golden flower. A familiar flower when all things were considered. Funny. While the golden flowers were always an excuse for Asriel to use after the buttercups did their job, Chara couldn't help but wish they really could see a golden flower one last time.

Why was one growing here? Never mind the fact that the flower was talking to them, but considering the fact that Frisk was a voice in their head, things could be weirder. Chara was wide awake at least, and the lullaby from nearby cut off with a choked gasp of air.

The yellow flower swayed in place.

"You're hurt."

It was a deep voice asking the question. One that really didn't fit the flower in front of them. Only, the flower stopped swaying in place and made no sound which meant that the voice was from above looked up. There was a large and fur covered hand, stretched out for them to grab like the one Asriel offered all those years ago.

So Chara reached forward...

And Asgore pulled them to their feet.

"Tell me what's happened my child."

Now that Chara's eyes, Chara finally could look around that last road towards home and see flowers as far as the eye could see. Roses, Tulips, echo flowers dotted the winding path much like a riverside was decorated as the water churned down streams. Logistically speaking, these flower shouldn't be growing in the rocky crags of the underground. It made no sense for flowers to grow without sun or freedom, but they grew all the same.

However, what really caught Chara's eye was the line of golden, yellow flowers all leading up a path that Chara felt like they hadn't seen in years. A little home was a little ways away, and all Chara needed to do was make their way forward.

 **(Welcome to the king's path. We're home).**

And as Asgore's hand pulled them out of the darkness, as Chara lunged forward to hug their father and confess everything, Chara couldn't help but agree with Frisk.

They were home.

 **End Of Part One**

* * *

 **How injured was Undyne? What's with the voices in everyone's heads? Who is this mysterious knight? What is Susie's importance in the next arc? These questions and more will be answered... soon. Next chapter in fact. Now that exams are over, I can work more.**

 **We've reached the end of an arc, but the story isn't over. I'll probably take a short hiatus to work on other projects, but the fates of these characters will be explained in the next chapter/epilogue. I've outlined the next arc which will move the plot along at a much quicker pace then this slow burn set-up. Deltarune has given me some very fun ideas to play with.**

 **Goodbye Friends, Until Our Next Experiment...**


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